Fantastic Negrito unveils new single "Oh Betty"

"Oh Betty" is teamed with a video directed by Aerick Neal of Shoot Something Productions, and follows last month's lead outing "Highest Bidder".

He says of the new release, "This was a very emotional song to record. It’s the story of my grandfather, of his humanity. He’s toiling in captivity and the only light at the end of this dark hallway is his love, Betty Gallimore, and he won’t give up on her. So that’s Grandpa Courage reaching out and singing that ballad."

"In the movie, there’s a scene where she meets him in the forest and gives him cornbread from the house," Fantastic Negrito adds. "When you think about the garbage that enslaved people were fed back then, the taste of that sweet cornbread must have been the taste of love. And for Grandma, sneaking that food to him was an act of true love, as well. So it’s a song of love and longing, but also doubt and fear."

White Jesus Black Problems will follow Fantastic Negrito's 2020 album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, and will be accompanied by a companion film. The project was written, recorded and filmed in Oakland.

According to a press release, the project is based on "the true story of Negrito’s seventh generation white Scottish grandmother (Grandma Gallamore), an indentured servant, living in a common law marriage with his seventh generation African American enslaved grandfather (Grandfather Courage); in open defiance of the racist, separatist, laws of 1750s colonial Virginia."