I thought my story was over. But that was when I realised I finally had a story to tell - and it seems to remind people of their own story.
Fantastic Negrito
I want to make other people around me smarter and more powerful.
The one thing I had pure in my life was creativity.
We should not fear what is new, but we should not throw out that which is in the past but is still valuable.
Without busking, there is no Fantastic Negrito.
I hitchhiked to L.A. with $100 and a keyboard.
Music is something that's so powerful and means so much to me.
Art and culture are the greatest weapons against hate agendas, entrenched ideologies, and power structures that harbor and promote the business of divisiveness.
I fear for the lives of my daughters. I am uncertain about what kind of future they will face.
My life, my failures. I hope that gives people the lesson to rebuild their own lives.
My most revered hero is Robert Johnson. His lyrics are so consistent with rap: the danger, the boldness, the creativity.
We gotta bring new ideas to the table and empower each other.
Your dream can die. You will probably give up. But from there, you can start everything over.
What I decided was I'd be happier not being in the confines of a corporate infrastructure producing music. That's when I was free, and it opened up the door to have a different personality and incarnations. That's really when I had success in my music life. I was able to license my music.
Usually when tragedy is present, a great art movement is right behind it.
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!'
'In the Pines' is a very old song dating back to slavery. Lead Belly made it popular.
'The Duffler' is a very familiar story, a story about someone having something and not appreciating it until it's gone, when it's too late.
I hope I contribute something useful to the human family. That's my intention. And I hope that it's useful to people.
The streets spoke to me in a way that religion didn't.
I had a dream, as young people have quite idealistic dreams and goals, of, 'I'm going to go to Los Angeles, and I'm going to become a star!' I did get this huge record deal, and I recorded this music under Xavier. That didn't really work out.
I knew I was an exhibitionist. I came from a huge family. I found an emotional connection being on stage.
Prince was a hero. He was the brother, the black man that was a little different. As a kid, you thought, 'Wow, he's different. If he can do it, I can do it.' I read that he was self-taught, so I started teaching myself to play the piano.
I write songs. I perform. I play the guitar. I play the keyboard.
That's always the time to quit - when you have nothing to say as an artist and creative person.
There's certain artists that are meant to have certain paths and go the way of the corporate world. And then there are artists who are artists.
Just keep being yourself. Keep being yourself, and people recognize it.
My dad was born in 1905, and the men from that period were real men. He prepared me for the world.
I was raised on African music, Harry Belafonte, and the Boston Pops. Then I got a dose of soul and hip-hop. I related to it immediately.
Jimmy Iovine signed me personally to a million-dollar contract, and I lost my identity for a long time. That system is so predicated on making a hit, or you're out of here.
If I can't be honest with music, forget it.
Fantastic Negrito is a persona, an incarnation in my third phase.
My dad was a strict Muslim. He had a lot of rules.
As long as we have have predatory capitalism, we'll have guns because the gun industry loves to make money out of guns.
I really loved the hardcore alternative vibe Prince had on 'Dirty Mind.'
I think that was always my strength. I was never a great player, but I could write.
Growing up in the neighborhoods I did in Oakland, you don't know the Beatles, but I started learning their songs.
I like being photographed without glasses. I don't want to be pretentious.
That makes me very happy as a human being to know what I'm doing is an inspiration to people.
I'm not interested in re-creating the same blues I love so much. I'm interested in pushing boundaries.
Doing a concert, I look at a room full of different people, and I see you've got Muslims, you've got Jews, you've got Christians, you've got gays, you've got straights, you've got blacks, you've got whites. I think, 'How can I unite these people through song?'
I came up with the album 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.
I like going out and looking at people, and they inspire me so much.
'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.
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.
I love the power of music and artistry and feel a responsibility having a platform to preach good things.
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.
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.
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 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.
