“Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?” by McKinley Dixon
A searing, poetic portrait of the Black experience in America,
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Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick is a searing, poetic portrait of the Black experience in America, helmed by a distinctive hip-hop voice.
Genre: Hip-Hop, Jazz Fusion
Label: City Slang
Release Date: June 2, 2023
Vibe: 🤩
“Nobody says it’s pretty here. Nobody says it’s easy either. What it is, it’s decisive.” Those words, penned by Toni Morrison and read by writer/critic Hanif Abdurraqib, serve as a heady, haunting tone-setter for McKinley Dixon’s superb new record. The name alone, referencing three of Morrison’s most popular (and most political) works, should give you an idea of how much unflinching social commentary Dixon packs into an album that clocks in just shy of a half-hour. What makes his approach unique is his use of personal, at times innocent-seeming anecdotes as a way of broaching a range of subjects including gun violence, death, and the afterlife. Everything unfolds with the delicate touch of an artist who wants to start conversations and heal wounds instead of preaching from a pedestal, which ground some of the more abstract moments in a sense of the real.
Dixon surrounds himself and the other vocal performers with wide-ranging that touches everything from boom-bap to neo-soul to Monk-inspired jazz fusion. The latter’s influence is clearly felt on the opening piano vamps of lead single “Run, Run, Run,” a song that begins as a recounting of a playground game and morphs into an SOS call to stop senseless murders (though it’s not clear if the perpetrators are gang members or cops, or a mixture of both). Other pleasant surprises elevate these songs from a textural point of view, be it the soaring strings on “Dedicated to Tar Feather” or the glittering harps on “Sun, I Rise,” giving Dixon several moments of real beauty that feel totally authentic and earned. The eponymous closer, with its sexy, soulful arrangement, is the crown jewel, as the rapper serves up some memorable wordplay that cuts through indigo-colored memories like a slash of golden sunlight.
It’s poetic, it’s precise, and it’s one of the best records of 2023.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈
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