fantastic negrito Archive
28 Oct 2020
Chocolate Samurai: More from My Conversation with Fantastic Negrito (Part Two)
Continued from Part One … Police violence and racial disparity have been in the news a whole lot more in recent times than they had been in a long time. […]
27 Oct 2020
Chocolate Samurai: More from My Conversation with Fantastic Negrito (Part One)
Thanks to my friend and former bandmate Jeff Japp, I discovered the music of Fantastic Negrito right around the time he released his stunning – and eventually Grammy-winning – debut, […]
26 Oct 2020
Fantastic Negrito: ‘These are My Friends’
This feature appeared previously in SF Weekly — bk When Xavier Dphrepaulezz reinvented himself as Fantastic Negrito, his self-described “black roots music for everyone” struck a chord with the listening […]
26 Feb 2020
Fantastic Negrito: Never Give Up
When Fantastic Negrito emerged onto the music scene in 2015, he looked to all the world like a new, emerging artist. Winner of that year’s Tiny Desk Contest for his […]
31 Dec 2018
Musoscribe’s Best of 2018
Even having shifted my focus these last few years toward interviews and feature writing, I still manage to listen to and review quite a few albums. In one form or […]
18 Oct 2018
Fantastic Negrito: We Can Turn It Around (Part 4 / conclusion)
Continued from Part Three… And even though Fantastic Negrito is now a high-profile Grammy-winning performer and recording artist, he still feels and maintains a close connection to that neighborhood. “The […]
17 Oct 2018
Fantastic Negrito: We Can Turn It Around (Part 3)
Continued from Part Two… The production on The Last Days of Oakland is “boxy,” and Xavier says that that quality is a deliberate aesthetic choice. “I wanted it to feel […]
16 Oct 2018
Fantastic Negrito: We Can Turn It Around (Part 2)
Continued from Part One… A 2014 EP titled Fantastic Negrito debuted Xavier’s new approach. Ostensibly blues, the five-song EP draws from a wider array of influences. Released to enthusiastic critical […]
15 Oct 2018
Fantastic Negrito: We Can Turn It Around (Part 1)
(An edited version of this feature appeared in print in Living Blues Magazine.) All photos © Audrey Hermon Kopp Fantastic Negrito is a a lot of things. On the surface, […]
30 Dec 2016
Best of 2016: Interviews
In 2016 alone, I’ve interviewed more than 140 artists; that’s nearly half the number I interviewed in the decade prior to this year. I hope 2017 will be at least […]
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