SXSW: Singer lives up to hype
Oakland artist Fantastic Negrito wows Texas crowd
AUSTIN, Texas — It was hard to predict how the audience would react when Oakland’s Fantastic Negrito took the stage here amid the South by Southwest festival Wednesday. Even though he’d just won a nationwide NPR contest, he was still largely an unknown performer.
He was the opening act, and a Web page devoted to the show by one of its sponsors didn’t even mention the performer by name.
Bob Boilen, host of NPR’s “All Songs Considered,” didn’t think that would be a problem for long.
“I think the crowd will be absolutely in awe in about five minutes,” he said.
He was right. Fantastic Negrito — whose real name is Xavier Dphrepaulezz (pronounced dee-FREPah-lez) — drew a huge reaction from the music fans who’d turned out for NPR’s “CouchTrippin’ to Austin” concert, held in collaboration with Lagunitas Brewing Co. Even though most listeners had shown up just to hear free music or catch one of the headlining acts, many walked away newly minted Fantastic Negrito fans.
“He looks like a superstar,” said 26-year-old Austin resident David Bregger, who was experiencing his first dose of Fantastic Negrito. “He’s got that stage presence.”
Chalk it up as another good chapter in the comeback story for the 46year-old Dphrepaulezz. It started when the R&B-soul singer-songwriter won the NPR Tiny Desk Concert Contest in February, topping more than 7,000 contestants. He taped his entry at the last minute, recording a video for “Lost in a Crowd” in one take in a freight elevator at his Oakland office.
His victory earned him the opportunity to tape his own Tiny Desk Concert (you can see it at www.npr.org/music) and earned Fantastic Negrito a spot at the NPR’s “CouchTrippin’” concert on Wednesday. He’ll perform his official SXSW showcase on Saturday.
It’s a heady turn of events for an artist who considered himself lucky to be playing tiny clubs and busking at BART stations just a few months ago. He had walked away from a lucrative record label deal in the 1990s when his album “The X Factor” flopped, then barely survived a gruesome car accident that left him in a coma for three weeks and mangled his arms and hands so severely that it looked like he’d never play music again. Then one night in 2011, while singing his infant son to sleep, he found his passion for music reignited and he returned to performing.
“I’m filled with gratitude to be here,” Fantastic Negrito said backstage, following Wednesday’s show. “I just want to make connections with people — and I feel I did that.”
Listeners were clearly connecting with Fantastic Negrito’s sound, which combines elements of blues, soul, gospel and other styles. (He describes his music as “black roots.”) Many commented about the amount of charisma he wields onstage.
“He’s just got incredible energy and soul,” said Anya Grundmann, executive director for NPR Music. “He’s hard to take your eyes off.”
“There’s so much movement and expression he does as a performer,” said Stephen Thompson, NPR Music editor. “He just lit up that crowd.”
And the results of Wednesday’s show certainly didn’t surprise Boilen.
“That guy did not let anyone down,” he said. “He just owns the stage every time he plays.”