by
 
Rob Jones
Fantastic Negrito has come in for some pristine plaudits, including
 “An Oakland musician whose life story…. is fascinating enough but nothing compared to the compelling brilliance of his new album” – The Sunday Times
“The first great album of the post-Prince/post-Ali world… Tremendous” – The Mirror
“A major work of stunning breadth and originality” – Classic Rock 
 
Cooking Vinyl is proud to announce a new partnership with the 2017 Grammy-winning artist Fantastic Negrito and his imprint Blackball Universe. The UK label will re-issue Fantastic Negrito’s current and critically acclaimed debut album The Last Days of Oakland (recipient of a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy Award) with two new additional tracks, just in time for his imminent European tour. 
The new tracks — “Push Back” and “The Shadows” — are both produced by Xavier Dphrepaulezz (aka Fantastic Negrito). The extra tracks will be available 30th June 2017 for download and streaming, and will be released worldwide along with the rest of the album on CD and 180g vinyl on 28th July 2017 to coincide with a series of UK dates planned this Summer (see below). Pre-order the album here: https://FN.lnk.to/TLDOO

fn.lnk.to
Preview, download or stream The Last Days of Oakland by Fantastic Negrito
Musicians on these new recordings include Masa Kohama and Tomas Salcedo (guitars), Cornelius Mims (bass guitar), Lionel Holoman Jr. (piano and organ), with vocals, additional piano, additional guitar, drum programming and claps by Xavier Dphrepaulezz. 
In his teens, Xavier ran the streets of Oakland, before finding music and eventually signing with Prince’s management. After a slow recovery from a car crash that left him in a coma, Xavier undertook several different musical alter egos, but in the end, he walked away from music — only to re-emerge years later as Fantastic Negrito.
Watch Fantastic Negrito performing “Scary Woman” (a track off The Last Days Of Oakland), Live At The Viaduct in downtown Los Angeles:
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiCY8FDq-k0
Watch Fantastic Negrito perform “Scary Woman” Live from Viaduct Subscribe to be the first to hear more from Fantastic Negrito: http://www.youtube.com/fantasticnegrito …
And the twist he gives to timeless folk-blues classic “In The Pines” electrifies the song with an immediacy and relevance torn from today’s racial strife-ridden headlines: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp_rRCNnUkk
“In the Pines (Oakland)” produced and directed by Rashidi Natara Harper featuring the music of Fantastic Negrito Subscribe to be the first to hear more from …
A performer with something to say, Fantastic Negrito runs an arts-collective in his hometown of Oakland, and performed at Bernie Sanders’ rallies in New Hampshire, Las Vegas and San Francisco during the 2016 US Presidential campaign. Of the new songs, he says, “We must unify — not divide — along the lines of our differences. We have a common enemy: distraction and propaganda. Our strength is in our diversity. We push back against our common enemies: fear, hate, bigotry, misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, classism… these parasites, these carcinogens that live in the shadows of our society. One world, one love, one race.”