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95Artist: Fantastic NegritoAlbum: The Last Days of OaklandLabel: Blackball UniverseRelease Date: 06/03/2016
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Fantastic NegritoThe Last Days of OaklandAlbum Reviews | November 8th, 2016
Fantastic Negrito (Xavier Dphrepaulezz) isa singer/songwriter, based out ofOakland, California, with an incredible lifestory. As a child, he grew up in anorthodox Muslim household with 14siblings in Great Barrington,Massachusetts, a small town where W.E.B.DuBois once lived. At age 12 he movedwith his family to Oakland, California, butsoon left home to live on the streets.
Always drawn to music and performance,by age 20 he taught himself to play a widearray of instruments. In the ‘90s, hesigned a deal with Interscope Records,but his sound was lost amongst the risingtrend of gangsta rap. Much worse, he wasinvolved in a near fatal car accidentresulting in a three-week coma, followedby intensive physical rehabilitation with his guitar playing hand permanentlyincapacitated.
Finally, he seems to be having his moment. In 2015 he won NPR’s Tiny Desk ConcertContest, his music has been featured on Fox’s Empire and in June, he released thefantastic album, The Last Days of Oakland.
A pastiche of responses to questions posed to the public by Fantastic Negrito himselfaddress issues of income inequality, racism and police brutality and provide sonicinterludes throughout the album.
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“Working Poor” recycles old blues lyrics, “I keep on knocking but I can’t get in,” whichtake on new meaning and point to the struggle to survive in America’s increasinglygentrified and unaffordable cities. “Scary Woman” is good time rock and soul, with aninfectious riff and playful piano fills while “The Nigga Song” cleverly confronts racismby deconstructing the “word” itself: “I need this song. I dropped the ‘e’, added the ‘a’,and killed the ‘r’ to heal my scars. Don’t sing along unless your people hung from treesand slaved til dawn.”
Fantastic Negrito always keeps his tunes fresh and dynamic with unexpectedstructural changes. Here hand claps and gospel chants in the middle lead to a brief rapabout the non-choice of having to choose between “Crips and Bloods.”
“What Would You Do?” takes a pause to ask passersby “Why do you think a lot ofyoung black kids are getting killed by the police?” with varied answers from the street.“In The Pines” takes a country-blues staple and transforms it into a lamentation on thepain mothers go through when burying their sons. Fantastic Negrito’s website featuresthe newly dropped video, which he informed me is “more like a short film.”
With an urgent staccato beat and simmering angst, “Lost In A Crowd” weaves a talethat speaks of the desire to stand as an individual versus the crushing conformity ofsociety. A more tender refrain states: “We’re just people, lonely people you and I.”
“The Worst” begins with acapella moans, and preaches: “Money and power, they’re theroot of all evil. People selling people; things they can believe in.”
The interplay between church piano, hammond organ, rootsy acoustic slide guitar,harmonica, female backing vocals, wah-wah and rhythmic stops exemplify the creativealchemy happening throughout the album as a whole.
The Last Days of Oakland is a carefully crafted work at once rooted in deep Americanaand set against the more contemporary sounds of modern R&B and hip-hop withlyrics that speak of pain, loss, transformation, love, and ultimately hope. FantasticNegrito sums it up best:
“The Last Days Of Oakland just means that, hey, it’s over, but something new’sbeginning. I feel very optimistic, and I hope that people get that from the record.”
Get the album and find out for yourself. Highly recommended!
-Mike Cobb
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