Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Format: CD
Label: Cooking Vinyl / V2 Records
Release: 2020
2x Grammy Award-winnerFantastic Negrito will release his new album ‘Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?’ August 14 via Cooking Vinyl.
‘Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?’ marks Fantastic Negrito’s (Xavier Dphrepaulezz) most far-reaching work thus far, fusing elements of hip-hop, R&B, funk, soul, and rock ‘n roll into an incendiary synthesis all his own. Inspired by and reminiscent of the socio-political albums coming from black America in the late 1960s and into the 70s, the album sees Negrito exploring the struggle and complexities of mental health issues while continuing his long running lyrical examination of America’s increasingly broken social and political state of affairs.
Though known far and wide as a gifted bluesman, Negrito shows off his extraordinary musical versatility on tracks like; ‘How Long’ confronting those behind school shootings, police brutality and other acts of senseless violence. Negrito holds a mirror up to society at large and asks “why have people become disconnected from humanity, and how has our current culture become a fertile environment for this behavior?” And the wildly inventive ‘Searching for Captain Save a Hoe (Feat. E-40),’ a thought-provoking modern reinvention of the legendary Bay Area rapper’s 1993 classic, “Captain Save A Hoe.” Additional highlights include ‘I’m So Happy I Cry,’ featuring powerhouse vocals from Tarriona “Tank” Ball of New Orleans’ Tank and the Bangas – a historic moment marking the first-ever collaborative recording by two previous winners of NPR’s influential Tiny Desk Concert contest. As urgent, desperate, and volatile as the times we live in, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND YET? more than affirms Fantastic Negrito as one of American music’s most vital and provocative artists, no matter the genre, of this or any era.
“On the first two albums I wrote about broad topics,” Fantastic Negrito says. “The proliferations of gun violence, the evil NRA, gentrification and homelessness, pharmaceutical companies that prey upon the people. On this album I wanted to write about people I knew, people I grew up with, people whose lives I could personally affect, and whose lives have impacted me. It was the hardest album I’ve ever written.
“What do I want to say to these people, and to the world? If I had the chance, I would tell them the pain they are feeling, the darkness they are going through is temporary – especially if you consider the span of a human life. I would tell them we can’t fight these obstacles alone. We need each other. Get offline. Talk to people. I would tell them I am here for you. We can’t hide from the pain. We need to look right at it. To really look into someone’s eyes is to feel their power and their vulnerability, to feel humanity, and to feel love.”
Tracks:
01. Chocolate Samurai
02. I’m So Happy I Cry
03. How Long
04. Shigamaboo Blues
05. Searching For Captain Save A Hoe
06. Your Sex Is Overrated
07. These Are My Friends
08. All Up In My Space
09. Justice In America
10. Platypus Disaster
11. King Frustration