With her third full-length album 99 Cents, Santigold continues to explore the intersection between integrity and intrigue which has always been central to the idiosyncratic artist’s appeal. Throughout the album’s 12-tracks Santigold examines the commercial nature of our world and the ways in which we package ourselves and our lives for consumption.

“We have no illusion that we don’t live in this world where everything is packaged. People’s lives, persona, everything, is deliberate, and mediated. It can be dark and haunting and tricky, and freak us out, but it can be also be silly and fun and we can learn to play with it,” she says.

She also explores our fascination with perfection and our inherent inability to attain it. The use of playful satire, social critique, and self-examination to explore these themes is reflected in the album’s cover art, a collaboration with photographer Haruhiko Kawaguchi, which finds Santigold shrink-wrapped amongst her cluttered possessions ready for the store shelves.

Following her last album, the dark and cerebral Master of My Make Believe, Santigold wanted to explore new corners of her sound and different ways to convey her vision and political commentary. She worked with new collaborators Patrik Berger, Rostam Batmanglij, Hit-Boy, HazeBanga, Justin Raisen, Zeds Dead, ILOVEMAKONNEN, and Sam Dew and longtime cohorts John Hill, Dave Sitek, and Doc McKinney. The result is the bright and big sound of 99 Cents that takes the genre-defying fearlessness Santigold has become known for to new places.