by Jare C (@jareccurtis)
Within the vast wild west of hip-hop artists that populate the Bandcamp scene, it can be hard for artists to break out of the tight-knit community that digs itself into the culture there. It’s one that is intensely experimental, inspired from the cultural standpoints of the historic music, art, and literary communities that predates it. Due to this, it can be a dense and tricky scene to get into, but as daunting as this can be, it is equal part intensely rewarding. Amongst this landscape, few artists have managed to climb through this obstacle quite like McKinley Dixon. A homespun rapper whose previous efforts have felt deeply personal and intimate, Dixon has woven songs with production that can be colloquially described as “experimental jazz rap,” and are self described as “music that Gerald from Hey Arnold would listen to”.
Whereas previous efforts, such as 2021’s For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her were distinctly homegrown and self produced, Dixon’s latest release, Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Is a record whose rich and detailed production is at once crisp and natural, with a focal point that is just as personal as his previous project. From the jump, with atmospheric spoken word track, “Hanif Reads Toni” the record sets the stage of a person who is reckoning with their past, and attempting to unite that personal history and community ties with their present, and their hopes for the future. This is apt, as the album is deeply connected with the work of Toni Morrison, with this first track centering around a passage from the author. This literary center is the primary force that makes this album so rich and rewarding, allowing Dixon to pull his personal experience to the concepts through Morrison’s canon directly into his songwriting. In doing so, he creates a collection of songs that hold hands with the universal experience of being influenced by art that touches the individual. The themes of entries in Morrison’s Beloved trilogy- loss, reckoning with the past, navigating and surviving institutional and systemic racism, income inequality, community, violence- drive straight into Dixon’s life and experiences.
Through tracks like the steady drive of “Run, Run, Run,” the saxophone-run and jammy “Live! From the Kitchen Table,” the celebratory and ruminative “Tyler, Forever,” and the boisterous closer “Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?,” Dixon covers a deep and wide amount of ground, in a packed and brief 28 minute runtime. With breaks throughout the record, such as “The Story so Far (Interlude),” and atmospheric, jazz driven breaks in multiple songs, Dixon establishes a world of rumination that lingers throughout the entire listen. The heart of this album, one that finds deep literary significance through the inspiration of the art of another artist, of the power of story and the ways in which it both informs and is informed by shared and individual experience, is one that is genuinely nothing short of genius. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Is very possibly the greatest accomplishment in music of 2023, and it is essential listening for any music fan.