Summary: <p>Self-described “lifelong hustler,” Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, is better known by his stage name Fantastic Negrito, and makes “black roots music for everyone” - blues with a giant undercurrent of punkass. Fantastic Negrito’s songs tell of a hard life with some complete do-overs and a few near-death experiences. Coming from a crossroads with optional deals, his music might be informed just as much by California funk-punk (Bad Brains and Fishbone), hip hop, thrash metal, punk, Prince and his self-taught ways - specifically <em>Dirty Mind</em> (according to this<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/02/fantastic-negrito-the-drug-dealing-hustler-who-became-bernie-sanders-favourite-bluesman"> Guardian interview</a>) and the blues records he’d heard as a kid, visiting family in southern Virginia.</p> <p>Lately, his tunes have been placed and licensed for TV and film series (<em>Empire</em>, <em>Hand of God</em>, and in the case of his song “Working Poor,” Bernie Sanders’ political campaign.) But back in the early 2000's he had co-founded a record label, which grew into Oakland-based multimedia creative collective, the <a href="https://blackballuniverse.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Blackball Universe cooperative,</a> fed and financed with the publishing royalties of his own musical alter egos Chocolate Butterfly, Me and This Japanese Guy and Blood Sugar X. </p> <p>Fantastic Negrito's latest record, <em>Please Don’t Be Dead,</em> references his own near-fatal car crash, and is driven in part by political and social issues in these broken and fractured times<em>.</em> The record is full of heavy riffs, cheeky songwriting, playful musicianship, and a whole lot of surviving. It brings Fantastic Negrito to the studio to play some of these tunes. <em>-by Caryn Havlik</em></p> <p>Watch the full session here:</p> <p> </p> <p>Watch the individual songs below:</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
