Fantastic Negrito raps about Storefront Records, his new label and community space in West Oakland
Freedom has come to Xavier Dphrepaulezz.
It has come not through his third Grammy, won last month for his third studio album as alter ego Fantastic Negrito; not from the key to the city of Oakland given to him by Mayor Libby Schaff in 2020. It's come not from the fame and recognition showered on Dphrepaulezz since erupting onto the music scene after winning NPR's Tiny Desk Concert in 2015 but from a former liquor store on a forgotten corner of West Oakland in a neighborhood the musician once called home.
I’ve decided to launch my own record label, Storefront Records. I think it is very important that artists have a place to go. I will base Storefront Records on my own journey, which has been turbulent, tumultuous, reality defying, and incredible.