Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? is a title suitable for the madness of 2020 and its timeliness is further proof that
Fantastic Negrito is the rare modern blues musician whose eye is keenly upon the present, not the past. His insistence on grappling with the realities of now also meant that he never resigned himself to playing traditional chord changes, preferring to rely as heavily on funk, hip-hop, soul, and rock as the blues themselves. Such eclecticism gels into a recognizable signature on
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, the third album Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz has released as
Fantastic Negrito since 2016. Here,
Fantastic Negrito leans heavily on
Prince for both his kinetic funk workouts and slow jams, so much so that the album can sometimes seem like a sideways tribute to the Purple One. He dips into paisley-flavored rock in the vein of
Sly Stone on "Platypus Dipster" and reels in
E-40 for an interpolation of the Bay Area rapper's classic "Captain Save a Hoe," but these are accents on an album that's so firmly grounded in funk, it only seems to hint at the blues. This will only be a problem for purists, as
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? crackles with energy, wit, and passion, attributes that are worthwhile effective compensation for
Fantastic Negrito's relatively streamlined attack here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine