Santigold chooses to be herself

PHILADELPHIA — On “Disparate Youth,” the single from Santigold’s new album, “Master of My Make-Believe,” that she sang recently at the Trocadero Theatre while flanked by a pair of dancers and wearing a floral-print romper, the avant-pop singer led the crowd in the mantra-like chorus: “We know now that we want more/ Oh-ah, Oh-ah/ A life worth fighting for.”

And what, for Santi White — the Mount Airy, Pa.-raised, Brooklyn-based, genre-mashing songwriter who began her U.S. tour for her keenly anticipated sophomore album with a sold-out show at the Philadelphia club — what, exactly, constitutes “a life worth fighting for”?

In the Troc dressing room earlier, White paused to think.

“It’s Devo — ‘Freedom of Choice,’ ” said White, dressed in a pink Keith Haring leather jacket that made her appear the embodiment of “a new kind of cool,” to borrow the phrase she used to eulogize her late friend Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. She flashes a smile at the thought of the New Wave band that was a staple of her musical diet while growing up in Philadelphia.

“It’s freedom to be who you dare to be, to be able to come up with what you want to be, and what you want the world to be, for yourself,” said White, 35, the daughter of Ronald White, the adviser to former Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street who died in 2004, and Aruby Odom-White, a psychiatrist. “To say: This isn’t what I want, and have the power to make it what I want … I think everybody deserves that freedom and everybody should feel empowered in that way.”

While making “Master of My Make-Believe,” which combines rock, reggae, rap, electro and dub in a way that never feels the slightest bit forced, White was empowered like never before.

That’s because in previous music endeavors, the creator of “Creator” — the electro-hop song that boasts, “Me I’m a creator/ Thrill is to make it up” — was always part of a collaborative process. This time, she was on her own.

After attending Wesleyan University, White worked at Epic Records. She attracted attention for the songs she wrote for “How I Do,” the 2001 album by Philadelphia rocker Res that has attained cult status.

She’s lived mostly in New York since 1996. But White lived in Philadelphia in the early ’00s while fronting the pop-ska-punk band Stiffed.

On Stiffed’s 2005 album “Burned Again” and on her 2008 solo debut — on which she went by the name Santogold, before changing it in response to a lawsuit — White worked closely with Stiffed band member John Hill.

White’s talent was apparent with Stiffed, but the rock band faced roadblocks. “We’re fronted by a black woman,” she told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2006. “That doesn’t matter to the fans. But to the industry it does.”

As Santogold/ Santigold, it’s been a different story. With parts of her songs, or music “syncs,” playing in shows like “Gossip Girl” and, most ubiquitously, a Bud Light campaign using the insinuating “Lights Out,” her 2008 debut album “Santogold” sold 226,000 copies (according to Nielsen SoundScan), an impressive number in an era when people don’t have to buy music to hear it.

The album made her an avatar of cool. She’s toured with the Beastie Boys, M.I.A. and Coldplay, and collaborated with Kanye West and Malian duo Amadou & Mariam. She’s part of the lineup during today’s opening festivities at Sasquatch, at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash.

“I think the music world wasn’t quite ready yet” for Stiffed, White said. “It’s changed, and I think I’m probably one of the people who helped change it, a little bit. People are more open to letting the music come in different packages now.”