On Tuesday, September 22nd at 6:30pm, Oakland native and 3 x GRAMMY® Award winning artist, Fantastic Negrito, visits KALX to hang with B-Fly and perform a live stripped down acoustic set before his concert with the SF Symphony on September 26th.
Negrito joins the San Francisco Symphony for a striking collaboration that brings his bold, genre-defying sound into a symphonic setting. Drawing from blues, soul, rock, and deeply personal storytelling, his music balances grit and grace, joy and resilience.
The performance also marks the 10-year anniversary of Fantastic Negrito’s breakout Tiny Desk Concerts appearance, the moment that introduced his voice to a global audience. Reimaged with a full orchestra, his songs expand in color and dimension, intimate yet powerful, grounded yet expansive.
Born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, Fantastic Negrito’s story is a testament to resilience and the transformative 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.
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.
