Fantastic Negrito has been added to the lineup of the 2018 Newport Folk Festival.
2018 ARTIST ANNOUNCEMENT: Please welcome Fantastic Negrito to our 2018 Friday lineup. pic.twitter.com/9QbDRNesIR
— Newport Folk Fest (@Newportfolkfest) February 2, 2018
Fantastic Negrito, is an African-American singer-songwriter whose music spans blues, R&B, and roots music.
Negrito made a record deal with Prince’s former manager, and later, in 1993, made another deal, this one 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 since said that he felt that this crash “released” him because Interscope terminated their contract with him, after which he resumed hustling. 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. Negrito won his first Grammy in 2017, when The Last Days of Oakland received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
The 2018 Newport Folk Festival will return to Fort Adams in Newport, RI from July 27 – 29.
