Fantastic Negrito

With its powerful vision of Black roots music and urgent yet thoughtful subject matter, the music Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz makes as Fantastic Negrito always matches the boldness of his alias. Born in Massachusetts in 1968, Dphrepaulezz survived a tough childhood in Oakland, California; a near-fatal car crash in 1999; and frustrations in the music business before finding inspiration in traditional forms and reinventing himself under a new name in 2014. His second album as Fantastic Negrito, 2016’s The Last Days of Oakland, earned him a major breakthrough and his first Grammy thanks to its thrilling fusion of blues, folk, rock and hip-hop along with lyrics that vividly depict the impact of gentrification and other changes on his hometown. On later releases like 2018’s Please Don’t Be Dead and 2022’s White Jesus Black Problems, he braved fresh thematic territory with the same amount of verve, wit and frankness.