Edinburgh Fringe: Fantastic Negrito

3x GRAMMY® Award-winner Fantastic Negrito released his highly anticipated new album, Sonof a Broken Man, on October 18, 2024 via his own Storefront Records. The new album seesFantastic Negrito encapsulating his inimitable style, from hard-hitting guitar riffs to expressiveballads, with the unexpected twists that have become his trademark. It stands as one of hismost personal works to date, exploring family, deception, and the human desire to hide the trueself as he dives deep into the struggle between father and son.

Born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, Fantastic Negrito's story is a testament to resilience and thetransformative power of music. By now much has been made of Negrito’s unique story –growing up in an orthodox Muslim household, a doomed major label deal, 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. 

He has since earned three GRAMMY® Awards for “Best Contemporary Blues Album," and shared stages with everyone from Sturgill Simpson to Chris Cornell to Bruce Springsteen. He's collaborated in the studio with the likes of Sting, E-40, and Tank and The Bangas, performed on  countless headline world tours and at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Newport Folk, and WOMAD, and founded the Revolution Plantation, an urban farm aimed at youth education and empowerment.

2025 is the 10 year anniversary of Fantastic Negrito winning the inaugural NPR Tiny Desk Contest.