FANTASTIC NEGRITO
Please Don’t Be Dead COOKING VINYL
The blues probably doesn’t need reinventing, but Fantastic Negrito’s second album makes a good case for it. Please Don’t Be Dead is an exuberant collection of songs that somehow inject the old genre with massive amounts of greasy funk, a healthy dose of woke political thought, and pulsating stretches of wild, unrestrained coitus. Prince is your nearest comparison, but FN is more at home slyly borrowing from hip hop than the Minneapolis magician ever was, and he’s overtly political in a way Prince seldom was. In fact, the whole album is utterly fearless, as if Negrito’s real-life experiences (near death, doomed million-dollar deals, and an actual coma) have allowed him to make an album that’s completely devoid of doubt. And the result is a funny, thoughtprovoking, genre-hopping joy. FL
Killer track: A Letter To Fear