{"id":11902,"date":"2016-12-07T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11902"},"modified":"2016-12-07T08:13:10","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T13:13:10","slug":"captivate-and-provoke-the-modern-black-roots-music-of-fantastic-negrito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/07\/captivate-and-provoke-the-modern-black-roots-music-of-fantastic-negrito\/","title":{"rendered":"Captivate and Provoke: The modern black roots music of Fantastic Negrito"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: this is the second of two features I’ve written recently about Fantastic Negrito (here’s the first one<\/a>). Expect more; this guy is one to watch.<\/em> — bk<\/p>\n

\"last_days\"<\/p>\n

Fantastic Negrito<\/strong> is the musical persona of Xavier Dphrepaulezz. Raised in a strict Muslim family, he ran away from home at 12 and never returned. He would fend for himself for the many years that followed, eventually pursuing music. He scored a deal with Interscope Records and released an album in the mid 1990s. And though The X Factor<\/i> \u2013 a funk record in a Prince<\/strong> mold \u2013 got some good reviews, it sank without a trace in the pop marketplace. He would soon be dropped by the label.<\/p>\n

That part of his back story makes his current success unlikely. But what happened a few years later all but guaranteed he’d never make another record.<\/p>\n

Onstage now, Fantastic Negrito smiles broadly and tells audiences, \u201cTonight is not a concert; this is group therapy.\u201d He goes on to share the story of his life’s most transformative event. In 1999, the car he was driving was struck by another motorist; he lay in a coma for weeks. When he awoke, a doctor asked him what he did for a living. \u201cConcerts,\u201d he told the physician. \u201cI’m a musician.\u201d The doctor told him he would have to find a new career: among many other injuries, his hands were shattered.<\/p>\n

But \u2013 as Fantastic Negrito explains in colorful language \u2013 he would not be deterred. Though many years would pass before he re-emerged as a musician, when he did it was with a renewed sense of purpose. A homemade video entered into a contest was selected from among over 7000 entries, and he won a spot on the NPR show Tiny Desk Concerts<\/i>. Billing himself as Fantastic Negrito, he premiered new music that went much deeper \u2013 both musically and lyrically \u2013 than the music he made in the years before his accident.<\/p>\n

\"fantastic_negrito3\"<\/p>\n

Fantastic Negrito has drawn comparisons to Sly Stone<\/strong><\/a> for his richly textured music. It’s nominally blues or black \u201croots music,\u201d but the songs on The Last Days of Oakland<\/i> rarely conform to what most people think of as blues. \u201cI was very influenced by all the Delta musicians when I embarked on the idea of Fantastic Negrito,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI love the sense of immediacy, and the urgency.\u201d But he name-checks Sturgill Simpson<\/strong>, Miles Davis<\/strong><\/a> and Chris Cornell<\/strong> as favorites, too.<\/p>\n

His live show is even more dynamic and engaging than his studio recordings would suggest; he’s a spectacle of nonstop movement and passion. And \u2013 bum hands be damned \u2013 he’s an intense guitarist.<\/p>\n