Normally sedate West Nashville will get a blast of unbridled, unfiltered aggression Saturday when Negro Terror, an all-black hardcore punk band from Memphis, makes its Music City debut at the Global Education Center on Charlotte Avenue. The unique double feature begins with a screening of Voice of Memphis, a 55-minute documentary about the group, followed by an in-the-flesh performance.
Brooklyn-born bassist-vocalist Omar Higgins, whose roots in punk, reggae and the skinhead scene run deep, began Negro Terror in 2015. In one of his formative experiences, in 1996 at age 16, he joined Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, a national group created in his native New York. He then moved to Memphis with his family, and not long after, enlisted in the Army. He did two tours of duty in Iraq.
“My music was the soundtrack to everything,” says Higgins, looking back on his service. “A mixture of everything. … Slayer to Creedence Clearwater to The Spinners. Poppin’ rounds to Smokey Robinson. ‘Bad Moon Rising’ while catching hellfire.”
After “kissing the ground like there was no tomorrow” upon returning to Memphis in late 2003, Higgins got right to work creatively. He formed a powerviolence group called Downfall of Humanity, and then the reggae outfit The Soul Enforcers, which lasted until 2009. The Enforcers’ demise dovetailed with the rise of Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, a cross-genre ensemble that also includes Higgins’ brothers Joe and David, the latter of whom recently joined Negro Terror on lead guitar. (Chinese Connection Dub Embassy plays a heady mix of reggae-rooted originals and covers and is still active today, with its second studio LP Strength due later this year.)
Before joining Omar Higgins in Negro Terror, guitarist Rico Fields and drummer Ra’id Khursheed were fans of Chinese Connection. Bluff City natives and slightly younger than Higgins, the two bring wildly different pedigrees to the table. Khursheed, a product of the Stax Music Academy, doubles as an English teacher and an R&B producer, while Fields, a cook by trade, comes from more of a goth, post-punk background.
“I was looking everywhere for [a guitarist], and [Fields] was right under my nose,” says Higgins. “I asked him if he wanted to join an all-black, hardcore, American Oi! band, and he said ‘All-black? Sign me the fuck up.’ ”
In their three years together, the core trio has gigged hard around their hometown, their scary-intense live shows becoming a fixture of Memphis’ ever-intriguing musical landscape. But since Negro Terror hasn’t toured extensively — or released anything beyond a super-raw five-song demo, 2017’s The Bootlegg — relatively few people have had the chance to experience them.
That will change in 2019 with the long-awaited arrival of the band’s debut full-length Paranoia, which will be out as soon as they settle on a label, with touring to follow. (“We’ve gotten a few offers, which we did not expect,” Higgins says, “and some of the festivals we’ve been contacting have been hitting us back.”) Meanwhile, the doc directed by filmmaker John Rash sheds light on Negro Terror’s ideological aims, sonic approach and interpersonal dynamic.
“We got songs like ‘Hate Machine’ and ‘To Kill a Hipster,’ and they’re pretty brutal, gritty tunes,” the gregarious Higgins says with a belly laugh, “but we’re not your average tough-guy group. We’re three individuals who are totally different, and one and the same. We support each other, we support the fight for decency. We oppose homophobia, xenophobia, animal cruelty. Nationalism is a step away from Nazism. When it’s hard to get those messages across, we bark even louder. We’re bulldogs. We’re against bullshit. We’re against things that are against common decency.”
