LCM Song Of The Day: ‘How Long?’ - Fantastic Negrito

Our LCM featured song today is very powerful and timely from Californian based multi-award winning singer-songwriter Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz aka Fantastic Negrito, It’s taken from his forthcoming album "Have You Lost Your Mind Yet" released on August 14th.

Xavier comments “My third album ‘Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?’ has been the most personally challenging to create due to its overarching theme of mental illness. I’m talking about the one we are all silently experiencing.

Xavier signed an early record deal with Prince's former manager. In 1993, he signed with Interscope Records. On January 9, 1996, he released his first album,’ The X Factor’, under the mononym Xavier. The album was released on Lexington House Records and distributed by Interscope He was in a near-fatal car crash in 1999, which left him in a coma for three weeks. He has said that he felt that this crash "released" him because Interscope terminated their contract with him, after which he set up an illegal nightclub in South Central Los Angeles. In 2007, he stopped making music, but he returned in 2014, describing his new musical style as "black roots music for everyone". In 2015, he won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest. In 2016, his album ‘The Last Days of Oakland’ was released on the Blackball Universe label. Xavier won his first Grammy in 2017, when ‘The Last Days of Oakland’ received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. He won his second Grammy with his next album, ‘Please Don't Be Dead’, which won "Best Contemporary Blues Album" at the 2019 Grammy Awards.

Photo credit: Pete Rosos