Top 79 Quotes & Sayings by Fantastic Negrito
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Fantastic Negrito.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Art and culture are the greatest weapons against hate agendas, entrenched ideologies, and power structures that harbor and promote the business of divisiveness.
I hitchhiked to L.A. with $100 and a keyboard.
That's always the time to quit - when you have nothing to say as an artist and creative person.
That makes me very happy as a human being to know what I'm doing is an inspiration to people.
My dad was a strict Muslim. He had a lot of rules.
I try to be as positive a person as possible.
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 write songs. I perform. I play the guitar. I play the keyboard.
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.
I hope I contribute something useful to the human family. That's my intention. And I hope that it's useful to people.
'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.
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.
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 things happen, and we have no control over them, and what you take from them is really what is important.
I want to be an artist, not be in the business of making hit records. Once I figured that out, everything became clear.
If I can't be honest with music, forget it.
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.
My life, my failures. I hope that gives people the lesson to rebuild their own lives.
It's amazing: when you are challenged with less, sometimes you can produce more.
Just keep being yourself. Keep being yourself, and people recognize it.
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.
My most revered hero is Robert Johnson. His lyrics are so consistent with rap: the danger, the boldness, the creativity.
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 like being photographed without glasses. I don't want to be pretentious.
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 just take things one day at a time. I'm just thankful that I have my legs, my arms, my eyes.
I fear for the lives of my daughters. I am uncertain about what kind of future they will face.
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.
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.
Live performance is everything. First of all, I have terrible stage fright. But beyond that, once the music starts, it's OK.
Fantastic Negrito is a persona, an incarnation in my third phase.
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.
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.
The one thing I had pure in my life was creativity.
I really loved the hardcore alternative vibe Prince had on 'Dirty Mind.'
'Push back' is the word; that's what we gotta do against ignorance. I see so much of it, and it's dangerous.
I like going out and looking at people, and they inspire me so much.
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 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.
I love the power of music and artistry and feel a responsibility having a platform to preach good things.
Music is something that's so powerful and means so much to me.
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.
The streets spoke to me in a way that religion didn't.
Growing up in the neighborhoods I did in Oakland, you don't know the Beatles, but I started learning their songs.
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.
'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.
Your dream can die. You will probably give up. But from there, you can start everything over.
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.
My dad was born in 1905, and the men from that period were real men. He prepared me for the world.
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 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.
I'm not interested in re-creating the same blues I love so much. I'm interested in pushing boundaries.
I think that was always my strength. I was never a great player, but I could write.
I throw up before every show. I'm thinking about just making it part of the act.
I think I was made for live music. It's just great.
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.
I always call myself a recovering narcissist. I lived my life thinking everything was about me.
As long as we have have predatory capitalism, we'll have guns because the gun industry loves to make money out of guns.
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.
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