20: How Oakland Culture Shaped Fantastic Negrito’s Fight for Balance and Belonging

Episode 20 : Xavier DphrepaulezzFantastic Negrito / Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? REDUXOn March 14th our friend and Change the Story guest Xavier Dephrepaulezz, also known as Fantastic Negrito will hear if he has garnered his 3rd Grammy in 5 years for his 2020 release Have you Lost Your Mind Yet. To help nudge the stars into alignment for Xavier we are re-broadcasting our Episode 6 conversation with him. This Episode not only includes great music and, of course, FANTASTIC stories, but also, an inspiring dialogue on next steps for the coming community revival. Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes:What is the danger of scapegoating?Well, of course, that's the biggest lie ever sold, not told. There should be a class on that. That is how every civilization has controlled other nations and its populace, from Genghis Khan. The Chinese say Genghis Khan was the bad guy that’s going to get us (he actually did get you). You know that. Yet the Romans did it. You know, everybody does. We do it.Is music a change agent?Music's a change agent, film is a change agent, art is a change agent, a bakery's a change agent, a coffeehouse is a change agent, a conversation is a change agent. They're all change agents, but the most important change agent is in your heart. That's the thing that changes the world. Change your heart and change the world.What do white folks and black folks need to talk about?But we got to at some point talk to each other. I want to do, a town hall like this. And I want the white people to stand the fuck up and say, you know what? I'm kind of scared of you guys. We need that shit, and the black people; don't you don’t call the person a racist.What's next for Oakland?What I'm doing right now is trying to build this hotel and this whole all these blocks in the California hotel, boutique hotel. The first African American town.LinksHave you Lost Your Mind Yet: Fantastic Negrito's latest albumA Letter to Fear: YouTube link to a cut from Xavier's second album, Please Don't Be Dead. which won the 2019 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The Suit that Won't Come Off. : YouTube link to a cut from Please Don't Be Dead.Watts Prophets: Legendary west coast pioneers of the new music form with ancient roots, that has come to be called rap. Amde Hamilton, Otis O'Solomon, and Richard Dedeaux first met at the Watts Writers Workshop. Fusing music with jazz and funk roots, and rapid-fire, spoken-word poetry, they created a sound has deeply influenced the course of music and poetry in the US and the world. They released two albums, 1969's The Black Voices: On the Streets in Watts and 1971's Rappin' Black in a White World, which established a strong tendency toward social commentary and a reputation for militancy. (See also: Art & Upheaval, W. Cleveland, NYU Press, Chapters 11-13)Native American Community Development Institute: A Minneapolis based community deveopment organization that was "founded on the belief that all American Indian people have a place, purpose and a future strengthened by sustainable community development. NACDI initiates projects that benefit the Native community, often in partnership with other Indigenous-led organizations."TranscriptBill Cleveland:  It's early 2015, and I'm sitting in my living room watching the rain and wind turn my windows into a drip collage of streaking grays and greens. The phone rings, its daughter, Heather. As usual, she's quick. She says, “I just shot you a text with a link. Just watch and listen and I'll call you later”.It was a YouTube page with the NPR logo on a frozen frame of four musicians crammed into what looked like an abandoned freight elevator behind a small makeshift desk. As I move to click, I'm thinking, “Desk? Oh, yeah, tiny desk.” Then this hit me. Music playsI'm knocked out. This was a one mike, one take video with the pulsing power of a locomotive. That tall, skinny guy up front with the voice that stretches like a rubber band says, “Get through the day, don't drown.” But I'm drowning --- in a good way--- in the music. From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.Part One: Griot Heather tells me his name is Xavier. XD lives down the street from Heather, with his wife and kids, and from time to time, their families hang out. I thank her for the gift of connection. Since winning the tiny desk, things have more than taken off for Examiner, who goes by Fantastic Negrito on stage. Two Grammys for best contemporary blues albums in 2016 and 2018 have fueled non-stop global touring and an international fan base. It's also given Xavier a platform as a change maker in his beloved hometown of Oakland, California. Over the past few years, Xavier and I have connected over both music and a shared passion for the power of imagination and story to make a difference for struggling people and communities. Xavier's own story exemplifies this belief and commitment. One of 14 children, Xavier, grew up with an obvious musical bent and a seemingly smooth road to musical notoriet. But a near fatal car crash that put him in a three-week coma, and left him with a disfigured hand, provided a hardscrabble detour that has spawned the birth of Fantastic Negrito’s one of a kind explosion of 21st century roots music.We met together at his studio a few weeks before the pandemic tilt. Actually, I was just realizing the last time we were together, you were doing the same thing for the second album as you're doing for the third. So, I'm going to fire away with some questions and look, Xavier. Yes. What is it you do in the world?Xavier Dphrepaulezz: I feel like I serve as a healer. I feel like I serve as a person in the community that has something to contribute to the narrative, that has something to contribute to the human saga. I feel like I'm an artist and musician. I tell stories that I hope are helpful to people. My new record is called Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? And a lot of it is based on people. My other albums were based on this big thing that I'm trying to fight the system, proliferation of pills, and last days of Oakland’s gentrification, and this big thing that's happening. But this record is about people, and it's the hardest record I've ever made because it's not something big that you're fighting, that you're imagining is your problem, your nemesis. It's the people, right? The community. It's the engineer you're working with. It's your buddy. It's yourself. So, I write stories about people, places, and things, and hope that they are contributing then medicinal to people's lives. BC: So, you have told your life's story many times eloquently. But, there are many musicians who would not articulate their work in the way that you just did. Talk to me how you came to that definition of your work.XD: Well, through a lot of failure. Did a lot of trials, jubilation, doubt, crime. Yeah, a lot of really negative things and overcoming a lot of obstacles. You know there's going to be obstacles, but the problem is, how do we deal with it? You know, I mean. So, I think I've arrived here especially. Have you lost your mind yet? Because, you know, we're now in this period man, we're just getting all this information, and I don't know if we're really meant to handle all this information, but I think people are there's record levels of anxiety and mental illness. It's not the mental illness of people walking down the street talking to themselves. Those people are probably actually OK, because in living in this insane video game world that we're living in, where we're justifying who we are based on, how many views do you have? How many likes you have? Well, how many followers do you have? We're now validating ourselves based on those...