Santigold gets in the interrogation room with herself in the new short video accompanying the arrival of her latest song, “Ain’t Ready.” The track will appear on the musician’s new album, Spirituals, set to arrive Sept. 9.
“Ain’t Ready” feels at once atmospheric and heavy, with Santigold’s falsetto vocals filling the spaces between the pounding drums and industrial synths. The short video accompanying the song matches the defiant tone of Santigold’s lyrics — “I know those fools boy ain’t ready/Still they spill their lies and blame” — with the musician encountering herself in a sterile interrogation room before unleashing all her fury.
In a statement, Santigold explained that she started “Ain’t Ready” with producer Illangelo before Sbtrkt and Dre Skull helped her finish the song. “It was one of those songs where as soon as I opened my mouth the whole melody just poured out,” she continued. “There were no words but all the emotion was there. To me, the song sounded full of struggle and perseverance. It sounded like a battle, and I wanted the production to sound tough, to mirror that grit. I struggled to find the right lyrics at first, but when I got them right, and I started singing them one night in my studio alone, I cried. This song was my own battle song. It’s about taking the hits that life brings and getting back up. It’s about change and moving forward. It’s about faith and vision. And it’s about stepping into your own power.“
“Ain’t Ready” arrives on the heels of Santigold’s recent song, “High Priestess,” which dropped last month. Both songs will appear on Spirituals, which follows her 2018 dancehall mixtape, I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions. Her last official studio album, 99¢, arrived in 2016.
Spirituals features contributions from an array of producers and collaborators, including Rostam, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, Boys Noize, JakeOne, Doc McKinney, Psymun, Ricky Blaze, Lido, Ray Brady, and Ryan Olson.
“Recording this album was a way back to myself after being stuck in survival mode,” Santigold said. “It wasn’t until I made the space to create that I realized I wasn’t only creating music but a lifeline. California was on fire, we were hiding from a plague, the social justice protests were unfolding. I’d never written lyrics faster in my life. After having total writer’s block, they started pouring out. I decided to create the future, to look towards where we are going, to create beauty and pull towards that beauty. I need that for myself, but it’s also there for whoever else needs it.”
Spirituals Track List
1. “My Horror”
2. “Nothing”
3. “High Priestess”
4. “Ushers Of The New World”
5. “Witness”
6. “Shake”
7. “The Lasty”
8. “No Paradise”
9. “Ain’t Ready”
10. “Fall First”