music.wikisort.org - Musician

Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz (born January 20, 1968),[1][2] better known by his stage name Fantastic Negrito, is an American singer-songwriter whose music spans blues, R&B, and roots music.[3] His 2016 album The Last Days of Oakland won a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 59th Grammy Awards.[4] In 2019, his album Please Don't Be Dead[5] won the same category for the 61st Grammy Awards.[6][7] His 2020 album, Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? won Fantastic Negrito his 3rd consecutive Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Fantastic Negrito
At Byron Bay Bluesfest, Australia, 2016
Background information
Birth name	Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz
Born	(1968-01-20) January 20, 1968 (age 54) Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Origin	Oakland, California
Genres	Folk blues R&B
Instrument(s)	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1996–2007, 2014–present
Labels	Interscope (1996–1999) Blackball Universe Storefront Records Cooking Vinyl
Website	www.fantasticnegrito.com

Early life

Dphrepaulezz was born in western Massachusetts, the eighth of fifteen children.[8] His father was a deeply religious Somali Muslim who, Dphrepaulezz recalls, had "a lot of rules" for his children.[9] Dphrepaulezz and his family relocated to Oakland, California, when he was 12 years old.[10] He began selling drugs as a teenager in Oakland, telling the Guardian, "We were all selling drugs, man. We all carried pistols. There was a crack epidemic. [....] I was the kind of kid who would sell fake weed [...]. Sometimes I would use tea."[9] He became inspired to teach himself how to play music after listening to Prince's album Dirty Mind and hearing that Prince was a self-taught musician. He learned to play music by sneaking into music classrooms at the University of California Berkeley despite not being a student there.[9]

Career

Dphrepaulezz signed an early record deal with Prince's former manager. In 1993, he signed with Interscope Records.[9] On January 9, 1996, he released his first album, The X Factor, under the mononym Xavier. The album was released on Lexington House Records and distributed by Interscope.[9][11] He was in a near-fatal car crash in 1999, which left him in a coma for three weeks.[3] He has said that he felt that this crash "released" him because Interscope terminated their contract with him, after which he set up an illegal nightclub in South Central Los Angeles.[9] In 2007, he stopped making music, but he returned in 2014, describing his new musical style as "black roots music for everyone".[3] In 2015, he won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest.[10] In 2016, his album The Last Days of Oakland was released on the Blackball Universe label.[12] Dphrepaulezz won his first Grammy in 2017, when The Last Days of Oakland received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.[13] He won his second Grammy with his next album, Please Don't Be Dead, which won "Best Contemporary Blues Album" at the 2019 Grammy Awards.[14] His third Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album followed once again with his next album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, winning at the 2021 Grammy Awards.[15]

Discography

• The X Factor (Interscope, 1996) (as Xavier)
• Fantastic Negrito (Blackball Universe, 2014)
• The Last Days of Oakland (Blackball Universe, 2016)
• Please Don't Be Dead (Cooking Vinyl, Blackball Universe, 2018)
• Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? (Cooking Vinyl, 2020)
• White Jesus Black Problems (Storefront Records, 2022)

External links

• Official website
• Fantastic Negrito discography at Discogs

References

На других языках

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- [en] Fantastic Negrito

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[es] Fantastic Negrito

Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz (nacido en 1968),[1] conocido con el nombre artístico de Fantastic Negrito, es un cantante y compositor estadounidense de blues y R&B.[2] Su álbum de 2016, The Last Days of Oakland fue galardonado con un Premio Grammy en la categoría de Mejor álbum de Blues Contemporáneo en la 60th edición de los Premios Grammy.[3] En 2018, su álbum Please Don't Be Dead[4] fue nominado en la misma categoría.[5]

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