From a cryptic dream to a mystical journey, Santigold takes her inner enlightenment into her own hands in “Disparate Youth.”
It’s a running theme on her second album “Master of My Make-Believe,” so when the Philly singer opens whited-out eyes to show us snippets of that dream, it should come as no surprise that the next scene shows her taking literal steps toward finding her dreamscape. Amidst a driving dub reggae beat, fuzzy guitar riffs and a plucky synth, a déjà vu-filled motorcycle and boat ride finally land Santigold in the wilds of Jamaica, where some of the children and animals from her dream guide her to a great tree and its spiritual keepers.
All along she’s been singing of “the youth creating their own world and not having to take this broken shit that’s handed to them.” Here, in the children’s “Lord of the Flies”-esque jungle existence, Santigold’s indigenous-centered vision of that world brings her new life, and without a doubt, carries a message. “My dad [played music] nonstop, like Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On?’ and Nina Simone’s ‘Mississippi Goddam’,” she explains. “I grew up in the era of Public Enemy and N.W.A. Everybody’s singing about something to do something, and expressing their experience. That’s how I have come to understand music. So how I’ve always approached my music is, ‘What do I need to say?’”
Seeing as the song’s been featured in countless ads, two video games, and three television series between NBC and Netflix, it’s obvious that Santigold’s “Disparate Youth” says a lot, and that millions have heard the message.
𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘:
“Oh, we said our dreams will carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
How to win what they all lost”