Review: Fantastic Negrito ‘Son of a Broken Man’

Review: Fantastic Negrito ‘Son of a Broken Man’

By Hal Horowitz

Take a forkful of Sly Stone, add some Prince, Lenny Kravitz and Jimi Hendrix, sprinkle on a bit of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, with maybe a touch of Jack White and you’ve got a sense of Fantastic Negrito’s inspirations. Then add three Grammy wins for Best Contemporary Blues album, rare approval from a usually conservative organization for music that pushes the boundaries of that genre to the breaking point.

And he’s not stopping, or slowing down, now.

The powerful ‘Son of a Broken Man’ (released Oct. 18), follows last year’s acoustic re-recording of 2022s equally gripping ‘White Jesus Black Problems.’

As its title implies, Fantastic Negrito’s (born the far less marquee friendly Xavier Dphrepaulezz) new album is a song cycle about growing up in a dysfunctional family. According to his notes “When I was 12 years old, my dad stopped talking to me and kicked me out of the house.” That’s the basis for these 11 tracks (there are three short interludes providing more depth to the lyrics). This concept doesn’t scream “party!” though and spending time with the often shockingly private lyric sheet, confirms that.

Examples such as “I’m gonna run away from you because you treat me so bad,” “I felt sick, had a broken heart/Wandered in the dark for a while /Now I’m free from the drama,” “Mamma did not like me /Daddy did not like me,” … Mama left me /Daddy gone/All my friends done dumped me/Now I’m all alone,” tell the tragic story of Negrito’s difficult upbringing. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Not surprisingly the music scorches too.

Between the boiling grimy funk of “Devil in My Pocket” (with doses of Kravitz and White), the dark but lovely ballad “I Hope Somebody’s Loving You” (where Negrito channels the great Solomon Burke) and the Latin percussive, East Indian flourishes of “My Only Friend is You,” the singer/songwriter/guitarist changes his audio appearance with chameleonic ease. He even tackles the gospel standard “This Little Light of Mine,” a more thematically upbeat moment, laying a frisky Prince-ly vibe over it.

Elsewhere Negrito shifts to a blues-inflected (but far from traditional blues) soul shot on “Feeling Like a Loner.” He works a mid-tempo groove singing the deeply personal lyrics of “Now I see and hear you everywhere I go/I’m trying hard to find my way to find my road /Sometimes I’m lost and I can’t find my way back home.” He brings a dark Mississippi hard thumping, trance-like shadow to the rocking “Crooked Road” an example of the disc’s most blues-based selections, one that leans into a North Mississippi Allstars approach.

The closing title track slants towards a durable Otis Redding-infused churchy/soul. Negrito reflects on his troubled youth, coming to terms with it on a particularly vulnerable moment, vocally and instrumentally. He repeats “Only the dreamers survive” multiple times, as a mantra of sorts, while layered guitars and piano increase from a stripped-down beginning to a surging “Purple Rain”-styled crescendo.

The organic nature of Negrito’s music isn’t blues in the strictest sense, but rather a subset of it. So it’s doubtful this will nab another Grammy in the category for the extraordinary yet often unusual, even quirky ‘Son of a Broken Man.’ Regardless, Fantastic Negrito continues to defy expectations, forging his unique path that’s unconventional yet compelling.

“I Hope Somebody Loving You”