Fantastic Negrito, NPR Tiny Desk Concert Champ, Reshapes Black Roots Music
Jason Marck, Jenn White
Jason Marck/WBEZ
Musician and artist Fantastic Negrito
In the early 1990s, singer-songwriter Fantastic Negrito got a huge contract from a major record label, but initially his career went nowhere. After that, he was in a massive car accident and spent years away from music before he restarted his career by busking on the streets of Oakland. In 2015, he beat out around 7,000 other acts to win NPR's Tiny Desk Concert contest, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Fantastic Negrito has toured the world in support of his release "The Last Days of Oakland," where he re-shapes what he calls "Black Roots Music" and mixes it with politically charged lyrics. He joined Morning Shift for a conversation last week when he was in town supporting country musician Sturgill Simpson.
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