Fantastic Negrito

Fantastic Negrito has won awards at all the different points of his career and I can’t see any reason why this won’t be in line for another Grammy.

In terms of hard hitting urban music this ticks boxes you didn’t even know existed. There are elements of traditional Blues and Negrito brings them to the world of 21st Century funk & R&B without losing any of the grit of the original form. The likes of Muddy Waters & Skip James would see their soul in this music.

He was massively influenced by Prince and I hear a great deal of that influence in the music but it never sounds remotely like a copy of Prince music.

The hard funk of a number such as ‘Transgender Biscuits’ had me dancing around the room but he is clever enough to soften it with soulful breaks and samples.
The first single ‘Plastic Hamburgers’ rocks like a bitch with a huge riff and killer organ in the back – almost a spiritual it links to the modern as well the past.
One favourite track is ‘Bullshit Anthem’. It has an incredible feel of early Parliament or Sly & The Family Stone – just irresistible.

His history is harsh – growing up in a heavily religious Somali family, drug dealing in LA & Oakland and, after being signed to a major label, experiencing a terrible car crash that left him in a coma with a mangled hand. All that hardship and pain comes through in his music but it is tempered with humanity – this could only be made by a man who feels and wants to communicate.