May 13, 2008 10:00

Santogold: 'P Diddy made me quit being an A&R'

Thank the rapper for Santi White taking up singing

Santogold has said that it was P Diddy that made her quit her job as an A&R and become an artist in her own right.

The singer – real name Santi White – worked at Epic Records in New York, but decided to call it a day when the rapper, then known as Puff Daddy, started dominating hip-hop.

Speaking in the relaunch issue of fanzine Loud And Quiet she explained: "You think it's going to be a creative job and it ended up being a completely administrative one.

"I was working in the urban department which was all R&B and hip-hop, which at that time started to be really bad – it was all Puffy, at a time when music stopped being good. And I was never a fan of R&B anyway, except for old R&B like Aretha [Franklin] and Marvin Gaye. Anything that was cool that I wanted to sign, they'd be like 'Wow! You're weird'."

To read the full interview get hold of the new issue of Loud And Quiet which is out now. Got to Loudandquiet.com/ for more information.