1/2
“Man,” said a friend when he found out about this mixtape. “She’s
really taking that ‘off-brand M.I.A.’ thing all the way.”
And hey, why not? Not only did M.I.A. coproducer Diplo work on
Santogold’s self-titled debut (as did M.I.A. coproducer Switch), but
this is his second artist-focused mixtape, the first being 2004’s
Piracy Funds Terrorism with M.I.A. And like Santogold compares to Arular—an enthusiastic variation on a bracing,
singular work; talent mimicking genius—so does Top Ranking: A
Diplo Dub resemble Piracy scattered to the winds, looser
structurally and deliberately hazy. This is a dub, remember:
echo, warped high-hats, records by other people (Aretha Franklin,
Barrington Levy, Sir Mix-A-Lot) strewn throughout like creeper vines
crawling up a brick building.
But for all her savvy, Santogold doesn’t have much personality
beyond being old-fashioned new wave’s latest triumph, and she doesn’t
command her sonic surroundings anyway near as effortlessly as does
M.I.A. Santogold inhabits this showcase like a specter; she leaves
traces, not marks. And Diplo’s mix itself seems to overcompensate with
a kind of diffuse busyness: A lot goes on at any given time, but little
of it seems to lead anywhere; the same applies to mashed-up set pieces
like “Unstoppable/Night Dub,” which utilizes Benga & Coki’s
stupendous dubstep hit “Night,” and adds up to precisely the sum of its
sources, no more.
Some of it is just off: Santogold singing “Guns of Brooklyn” over
the Clash’s “The Guns of Brixton” is neither convincing nor shrewd.
(Which L stop are they selling ammunition in these days, anyway?) The
results, appropriately enough, feel both labored over and tossed
off—how very ’00s.