Like many musicians, singer-songwriter Fantastic Negrito used the pandemic lockdown to write music.
The subject, however, was deeply personal.
“During the pandemic, I discovered my deep family secrets that were hidden from me,” says Negrito, born Xavier Dphrepaulezz. “I made an album and a movie about it.”
Due June 3, “White Jesus Black Problems” is based on the true story of Negrito’s seventh-generation white Scottish grandmother, an indentured servant, living in a common-law marriage with his seventh-generation African American enslaved grandfather, in open defiance of the racist, separatist, laws of 1750s colonial Virginia.
Negrito will play selections from “White Jesus Black Problems” at Pure Imagination Festival on Saturday, May 21, at Watson Lake Park in Prescott.
“It was super, super inspiring to me,” he says about his family’s lineage. “This is my most ambitious work thus far. Who knew I was 27% European?”
Negrito researched his family the old-fashioned way: online.
“I just started digging online,” he says. “You have these websites that have all of our family information these days.”
The first single from “White Jesus Black Problems” is “Highest Bidder,” a track tackling themes of racism, capitalism and the meaning of freedom itself via African rhythms and Delta blues.
Another track, “Oh Betty,” was “very emotional.”
“It’s the story of my grandfather, of his humanity,” he says.
“He’s toiling in captivity and the only light at the end of this dark hallway is his love, Betty Gallimore, and he won’t give up on her. So that’s Grandpa Courage reaching out and singing that ballad.
“In the movie, there’s a scene where she meets him in the forest and gives him cornbread from the house. When you think about the garbage that enslaved people were fed back then, the taste of that sweet cornbread must have been the taste of love. And for grandma, sneaking that food to him was an act of true love, as well. So it’s a song of love and longing, but also doubt and fear.”
Pure Imagination Festival
WHEN: 9 a.m. Saturday, May 21
WHERE: Watson Lake Park, 3101 Watson Lake Park Road, Prescott
COST: Tickets start at $71.50
INFO: pureimaginationfest.com
