Please Don't Be Dead (Deluxe) Fantastic Negrito

• 1 Plastic Hamburgers 03:37
• 2 Bad Guy Necessity 03:59
• 3 A Letter to Fear 04:05
• 4 A Boy Named Andrew 04:23
• 5 Transgender Biscuits 03:03
• 6 The Suit That Won't Come Off 04:01
• 7 A Cold November Street 03:52
• 8 The Duffler 03:39
• 9 Dark Windows 03:41
• 10 Never Give Up 01:07
• 11 Bullshit Anthem 03:15
• 12 Dark Windows (Acoustic) 03:34
• 13 Bad Guy Necessity (Acoustic) 03:57
• 14 A Cold November Street (Acoustic) 03:45
• 15 The Suit That Won't Come Off (Acoustic) 04:00
• 16 The Duffler (Acoustic) 03:36
• Total Runtime 57:34

Info for Please Don't Be Dead (Deluxe)

Grammy Award winner Fantastic Negrito interprets the blues with a modern and refreshing style rarely found among artists today.

Blues embodies the interplay of life's highs and lows. Singer Fantastic Negrito knows this all too well. In fact, he has an entire album to tell about it. It's called "Please Don't Be Dead."

Fantastic Negrito hasn't always had it easy. Growing up in humble circumstances, a petty criminal past, a multi-million dollar record deal, setbacks, a serious accident with permanent damage to his playing hand, and now a second career.

All these experiences have shaped him. And it shows. He blends edgy, modern blues with soul, folk, and rock. Fantastic Negrito sings as if there's no tomorrow. His experiences speak volumes.

"Please Don't Be Dead" is a complete work of art in itself. It begins with the cover art and extends to the songs themselves. Fantastic Negrito takes the listener on a journey through his turbulent life. A journey well worth exploring.

This is an album that grabs a hold of you and really refuses to let you go. It’s an album that should seriously change how you listen to music, and the expectations you hold for what an album is. This is art in the sonic form resplendent in dualities. It is raw, it’s comforting. It questions, it provides answers. It’s political yet apolitical. It’s confrontational and welcoming. Yet, perhaps its greatest quality is in the ability of Dphrepaulezz to envision the human condition so well, while challenging your perception of what Americana, or even music as a whole should be. This isn’t some collection of songs and music just being played for a whim or mindless entertainment. It’s composed purposefully and deliberate. it’s subject matter is presented with a matter of urgency and directness that Dphrepaulezz no doubt saw as important. There are no happy accidents here. This is intentional, and ultimately, that is where it finds it’s beauty.

“I wrote this album because I fear for the life of my black son,” sagt Negrito. “I fear for the lives of my daughters. I am uncertain about what kind of future they will face. Will someone shoot up their school? Will they become addicted to prescription pills? Will they wind up on the street, sleeping under freeways and overpasses? Will the police murder my son? I came up with the name Please Don’t Be Dead because I felt like we’d lost our way as a society — and I know what happens when you chase the wrong things. It’s the story of my life.” (Xavier Dphrepaulezz)

Fantastic Negrito

Xavier Dphrepaulezz
Born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, the story of Fantastic Negrito is a testament to the transformative power of music and the importance of resilience. By now much has been made of Negrito’s unique story – his early years growing up in an orthodox Muslim household, the doomed major label deal that turned him off of the music industry altogether, the near-fatal car crash that permanently damaged his guitar-playing hand—as well as the remarkable redemption arc that began in 2015, when he won the first-ever NPR Tiny Desk Contest. In the years that followed, Negrito would go on to take home three consecutive GRAMMY® Awards for “Best Contemporary Blues Album,” share stages with everyone from Sturgill Simpson to Chris Cornell to Bruce Springsteen, collaborate in the studio with the likes of Sting, E-40, and Tank and the Bangas, perform on countless worldwide headline tours and at such festivals as Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Newport Folk, and Bryon Bay Blues, and found the Revolution Plantation, an urban farm aimed at youth education and empowerment. Fantastic Negrito’s fifth studio album, 2022’s White Jesus Black Problems, marked the acclaimed first release on his own Storefront Records label. 2023 saw the release of Grandfather Courage, an acoustic reimagining of White Jesus Black Problems recorded with his touring band and hailed by PopMatters as “a compelling, affecting work of acoustic blues and roots music, speaking to the deep currents of blues as an American art form.”

This album contains no booklet.