L.E.S. Artistes
| "L.E.S. Artistes" | ||||||||||
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UK cover
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| Single by Santigold | ||||||||||
| from the album Santogold | ||||||||||
| A-side | "Creator" | |||||||||
| Released | March 25, 2008 (see Release history) |
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| Genre | Indie pop, new wave | |||||||||
| Length | 3:43 (original) 3:24 (album version) |
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| Label |
Downtown Records (US) Atlantic Records (UK) |
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| Writer(s) | Santi White, John Hill | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Jonnie "Most" Davis, John Hill, Santigold | |||||||||
| Santigold singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"L.E.S. Artistes" is the second single by American artist Santigold (known then as Santogold), and along with "Creator", the first to be taken from her self-titled debut Santogold (see 2008 in music).
"L.E.S. Artistes" was written after Santi White moved to New York City. The song "is playing on the fact that everyone tries to make things fancy and it's really pretentious" and "about being accosted by the New York scene and the scenesters and hipsters, who are really not artists and are just pretending to be. They're all about just being seen." The title stands for New York's Lower East Side. "It's not a French thing," White stated in an interview with PopJustice. On MTV's FNMTV, Santogold stated that the title literally meant Lower East Side Artists.
A custom edit of the XXXChange Mix appears in "Grid", a Mark Romanek directed computer animated commercial for Ford Flex that began running nationally in June 2008.
Lastly, Curtis Santiago recently did a remix of this song featuring Kevvy Mental of the band Fake Shark - Real Zombie! for a mix tape produced by Mickey Fax.
The song also appears in the video games Band Hero and EA Sports' NHL 08.
This song was in the book 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die.
The single's first commercial release was via the US iTunes Store on March 25, 2008, as a joint single with "Creator". It was released as the b-side to "Creator" through a limited edition 12" vinyl in January 2008, before receiving a full release on May 5. The XXXChange remix was also released. "L.E.S. Artistes" was featured as iTunes' Discovery Download for the week of April 28. The song has received heavy radio play in the UK and was on Radio 1's B List, and in Philadelphia the song has also received ecstatic play on Maximum Shine's themed radio show "Music Fo' Grown Fo'ks" at WKDU.
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Wikipedia