New Music: Fantastic Negrito unleashes single “How Long?” | New Album Out 7/17

Fantastic Negrito
Shares Single “How Long?”

New Album
Fantastic Negrito Alive!
Out July 17

US & Europe Dates This Summer
Tickets Here

“Reimagining the blues for a new age — and audience.” – Los Angeles Times

“Ripping up any blueprint for how a blues album should sound.” – American Songwriter

“Something like Led Zeppelin’s debut, Negrito is too weird and wired to stay in the blues channel, though he is unlikely to head off toward hobbits.
He is headed somewhere, that’s for sure.” – Pitchfork

“His story is, by any criteria, extraordinary, and the enjoyment he derives from sharing it is infectious.” – The Guardian

“It’s the truest testament in believing not only ischange gonna
come, but it is here.” – Rolling Stone

“You’ll see that newly rediscovered purpose in his eyes and hear it in his voice.” – NPR

Photo Credit: Roberta Paolucci 

Three-time GRAMMY® Award winning artist Fantastic Negrito returns with “How Long?,” a powerful new live single from his upcoming album Alive!, arriving July 17 via Storefront Records. Blending explosive musicianship with deeply personal storytelling, “How Long?” channels frustration, heartbreak, and self-reflection into a soul-stirring meditation on the cycles of violence and division that continue to shape modern life. Written in response to recurring police violence, war, greed, gun violence, and systemic inequality, the song asks a question that feels increasingly urgent: how long are we going to keep doing this to each other?

“I wrote ‘How Long?’ out of frustration and heartbreak over the cycles we keep repeating as human beings,” says Fantastic Negrito. “Watching another police shooting, seeing violence in Oakland, hearing about the murder rates in Chicago over and over again, I kept asking myself the same question: how long are we going to keep doing this to each other? At the same time, I also started wondering about my own accountability and what my part was in helping point the world in a different direction.”

Driven by the raw emotional intensity that has made Fantastic Negrito one of the most compelling live performers of his generation, the track captures the electricity, honesty, and human connection at the heart of Alive!, a live album that celebrates the irreplaceable power of live music in an increasingly artificial world.

Fantastic Negrito will be across the globe this summer with tour dates in the US, Europe, and more. Information on dates here.

“How Long?” : Listen/Share

Three-time GRAMMY® Award winner and critically acclaimed artist Fantastic Negrito returns with a new single and forthcoming album Fantastic Negrito Alive that capture the power of human connection at a time when culture is increasingly mediated by algorithms. The new project documents an artist whose performances have been described as “church without the religion,” as gatherings where listeners don’t just observe, but participate.

Composed of grit, soul, funk, rock, foot stomps, handclaps, and blues, Fantastic Negrito has built a global following through performances that transcend genre and dissolve the boundaries between stage and crowd. His live shows are not simply concerts, they are collective experiences driven by emotion, vulnerability, and fearless musicality. This new album captures that experience in its purest form.

Fantastic Negrito has built a global following through fearless originality and genre-defying music that blends blues, rock, soul, funk, and roots traditions into something entirely his own. Across Alive!, those songs take on new life in front of an audience, where spontaneity, vulnerability, and community become part of the performance itself.

The forthcoming album continues this theme, presenting live performance as one of the last truly collective art forms: completely human, unedited, and shaped in real time by the exchange between artist and audience. Negrito’s concerts are known for dissolving the boundary between stage and crowd, creating an atmosphere that feels immediate, participatory, and deeply alive.

Since winning the inaugural NPR Tiny Desk Contest, Fantastic Negrito has continued to redefine contemporary roots music, blending blues, soul, rock, and funk into a sound that is unmistakably his own. His performances have earned praise from audiences across major festivals including Glastonbury, Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza, WOMAD, and collaborations with artists such as Sting, E-40, and Tank and the Bangas further demonstrate the broad reach of his artistry.

US Tour dates:
Aug 20  Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
Aug 21 Santa Fe, NM @ Santa Fe Plaza
Aug 22 Tucson, AZ @ La Rosa
Sep 26 San Francisco, CA @ Davies Symphony Hall (with the SF Symphony)

“How Long?” Single artwork

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