I try to be as positive a person as possible.
— Fantastic Negrito
We should not fear what is new, but we should not throw out that which is in the past but is still valuable.
NPR changed my life; I don't even front.
I could have worked with great people like Nile Rodgers, which I regret. I don't have many regrets, but I remember he'd shown some interest, and I was just in my own world, man.
Blues purists may hate what I do sometimes because it's a little dirtier.
Everybody agreed I had all this talent, but I didn't know what to make of it.
Ain't nobody more punk rock than Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, even Little Richard.
Slaves and the descendants of slaves created world pop culture. Let's keep it real and be very respectful about that.
When I look into the audience, and I just know we understand each other, I can see their faces, and they know what I'm talking about. I feel like I've helped. Everything I've been through in my life, it helps people. Then that makes it worth it.
'Push back' is the word; that's what we gotta do against ignorance. I see so much of it, and it's dangerous.
I think things happen, and we have no control over them, and what you take from them is really what is important.
I can't just sit back and write about the club when our democracy is under attack. I have to be a more positive force.
I wanted to do life, do something interesting. I ran out of things I wanted to say in my music, so I just put it down, sold all my gear, and put on some overalls and reconnected with the soil.
I hope I contribute something useful to the human family. That's my intention. And I hope that it's useful to people.
I don't mind being the voice of the New Oakland to maintain the integrity and edge of it. Old Oakland and New Oakland is one and the same. It's connected. I aspire to be the bridge between both.
I take the purest and hardest forms of music... and come in completely fresh from a production standpoint. It's like hip-hop production, because there's a lot of taking the best parts and a lot of the repetitiveness.
'Fantastic' is self-explanatory, you know? And the 'Negrito' is a way to open up blackness to everyone - you know, make it playful, international. It's extremely positive in my view; it's my affair with this music.
I just take things one day at a time. I'm just thankful that I have my legs, my arms, my eyes.
We gotta bring new ideas to the table and empower each other.
Without busking, there is no Fantastic Negrito.
When I was a youngster, I wrote all this music - it just came out of me - and I think record executives were like, 'Oh, wow, he's a genius, let's give him a million dollars!' But the minute I started producing the records, they'd be like, 'Oh, my God, you're terrible! You're all over the place! We can't market this!'
Exercise is good for you, so I'm always walking. I don't drink sodas or eat fast food, either.
When I was born, my mother said all the nurses wanted to come see the colored baby.
'In the Pines' is a very old song dating back to slavery. Lead Belly made it popular.
I usually go to secondhand stores and find what I can. I like finding interesting things: vests, blazers. I tell the band, 'We got to look good when we're up there.' I learned it from Miles Davis. I read about his suits in his biography. Suits mean you're getting paid, and I like the idea that he looked good in his suits.
Live performance is everything. First of all, I have terrible stage fright. But beyond that, once the music starts, it's OK.
The streets spoke to me in a way that religion didn't.
I always call myself a recovering narcissist. I lived my life thinking everything was about me.
So-called leaders aren't doing anything, so it's become the job of artists like me. We have to get on the front lines and fight for the people who have love and tolerance in their hearts and want to live in a unified world.
I want to be an artist, not be in the business of making hit records. Once I figured that out, everything became clear.
My life, my failures. I hope that gives people the lesson to rebuild their own lives.
I think once I had lived life, once I had failed enough in this lifetime and got back up a thousand times from failing, I really connected to the blues.
I love the power of music and artistry and feel a responsibility having a platform to preach good things.
I like going out and looking at people, and they inspire me so much.
I think I was made for live music. It's just great.
I want to make other people around me smarter and more powerful.
There came a point where I did give up on music, but I'm the kind of person that when I face obstacles, I become more determined. It's just something weird within me.
I had this dream that you get this record deal, and you're a star, and everybody loves you - but I was a youngster, and it didn't work out that way.
I became Fantastic Negrito, and I felt like there was a rawness and an honesty in that music that I could relate to. That I was ready, finally, in my life to be that honest with myself.
I'm in a collective with the same guys I met on the streets at 12. The greatest investments I ever made were those friendships.
Usually when tragedy is present, a great art movement is right behind it.
My most revered hero is Robert Johnson. His lyrics are so consistent with rap: the danger, the boldness, the creativity.
It's amazing: when you are challenged with less, sometimes you can produce more.
Music is something that's so powerful and means so much to me.
I throw up before every show. I'm thinking about just making it part of the act.
I heard Skip James, and it pierced me. It felt like punk rock to me, real and raw. It was just one guitar, so simple yet so much expression. I wanted to feel and express like that, to take the shortest path to get to an emotion.
What did winning a Grammy do for me? It made me want to get rid of my Grammy, pack it away, and never see it again. It made me not want to speak to anyone who wanted to speak about my Grammy.
Your dream can die. You will probably give up. But from there, you can start everything over.
Nothing unifies people more than music, more than that universal riff. The one thing that unifies us and the hope that we can have, especially being an artist, is that we can create music that can build bridges and smash down very bad ideas.
The idea of 'raw' music, to me, is honesty: getting people to feel you with the least amount of production possible, the shortest distance traveled emotionally, sonically.
