The Red Bulletin December 2020 (UK)

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Fantastic Negrito Taking an outside chance The Grammy-winning blues guitarist reveals how a hard-learnt education in hustling helped score him one of the most unlikely careers in music Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER Photography LYLE OWERKO In 1996, Xavier Dphrepaulezz was bound for superstardom. After being taken under the wing of Prince’s former manager, the guitarist had just signed a million-dollar deal with major label Interscope – not bad for a young man who grew up in a house with 14 siblings, ran away at the age of 12, and got involved in petty crime during his teens on the streets of Oakland, California. But then life took another U-turn. His debut album was a flop. Then, in 1999, a near-fatal car accident put him in a coma and mangled his strumming hand; Interscope dropped him. When Dphrepaulezz picked up his guitar again several years later, he had a new mantra: don’t try to please anyone and don’t chase trends. He reinvented himself as delta blues guitarist Fantastic Negrito, playing raw protest songs, dressing outlandishly, and making statements others might find uncomfortable. This new direction has earned the 52-year-old the Grammy award for Contemporary Blues Album in 2017 and 2019, and praise from the likes of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders. THE RED BULLETIN: What’s your aim when you write a song? FANTASTIC NEGRITO: Basically, every song I write, I write for my kids. I ask myself, “What do I want to tell my kids?” The things I sing about are openness, equality, healing, accountability, a little bit of the middle finger. I think we need all of these things in our toolbox in order to navigate through this construct of society. Most importantly, I want them to know: don’t let anybody tell you what you can or can’t do. Is that a rule you live by? I mean, look at me! I released my first Fantastic Negrito album at 46. People in the music industry, they’re bean counters. They didn’t get it at all. They’re like, “Wait a minute, you’re not a rapper, you’re not a pretty white girl singing pop.” I didn’t fit into any of these categories, and yet here we are. So I like to think that Fantastic Negrito is for all the people who’ve been told no; all the people who didn’t get picked for the team. So Fantastic Negrito is the patron saint of outsiders? Absolutely! Aged 12, I ran away from home and never saw my family again. I was living on the street. I was hustling for food, for water, trying to find an abandoned car to sleep in. I was hustling to that mentality of surviving. I wasn’t hustling to rip people off – although I did do some of that – I was mostly trying to eat! When it came time to create Fantastic Negrito, I picked up the guitar and was like, “I know how to do this: you just don’t take no for an answer.” What makes a good hustler? It’s someone who gets things done; someone who turns bullshit into the good shit. When I was homeless, I faked my way into the University of California, Berkeley. I pretended to be a music student coming to practise. I sat there and just listened to what people were playing, to learn. The first thing I did after my accident was lease a grand piano so I could just clunk with my hands. I don’t believe in giving up. I’m a lifelong hustler. How does a two-time Grammy winner hustle? I’m still on the outside of things. People still ask me, “Why don’t you do something easy, like this ’60s retro thing?” They’re basically asking me to make them feel comfortable. But listen, I don’t give a fuck about making people feel comfortable. Being an artist is about confronting society. Making people comfortable? That bores the shit out of me. I don’t care about selling records; what I care about is liberty as a human being. What does liberty mean to you? It’s about not giving a fuck. It’s the most powerful thing you can do. All my heroes made their best music when they didn’t give a fuck, when they didn’t try. I’m a firm believer in that. Because when you give a fuck you lend yourself to this repressed fantasy that people in power have of where we should fit. So that they feel comfortable. Why are we living in a society that’s openly medicated? I don’t drink or smoke – I don’t need that. Because I feel liberated, I don’t give a fuck. It’s a beautiful thing. How do you get there? Through failure and disappointment. I got there from watching my little brother killed at 14, seeing him on the ground with a hole in his head. I got there from seeing my 16-year-old cousin in a casket. I got there from losing my playing hand. But I also got there from walking the streets as a kid, trying to find a way. Finding out who I am, embracing who I am, then celebrating who I am and, most importantly, not making apologies to people for who I am. I don’t need anybody’s permission, because I feel amazing. And I want to pass that on to people who may not feel amazing. That’s what I want to pass on to my kids, your kids, your grandkids. I feel like that’s my mission. Fantastic Negrito’s third album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? is out now; fantasticnegrito.com 26 THE RED BULLETIN
“I don’t need anybody’s permission, because I feel amazing” THE RED BULLETIN 27
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