In my eyes, McKinley Dixon has occupied a special place in music ever since the 2023 release of his critically acclaimed “Beloved, Paradise, Jazz.” Hearing that album for the first time was truly an eye-opening moment. I was instantly blown away by the sheer production value, unique flows, and the colorfully articulate lyricism.
The album was composed almost entirely with real instruments played by real people in real time, an element that broke the widely agreed upon conventions of modern rap music, producing something larger than the sum of its parts. Instances of innovation in modern hip-hop are few and far between, so stumbling upon a project that defied almost all expectations and succeeded with flying colors was no less than exhilarating.
The record stayed on repeat for me for months as I slowly picked apart the lyrical content and began to take notice of all the musical moments orchestrated on the record. I was amazed at how effortless McKinley sounded over such dynamic instrumentals. A myriad of instruments danced, grew, shrunk and spoke together on every track, and despite the saturation Dixon always managed to find a perfect place for himself right in between. As I played the tracks back day by day, going about my life, a lot of questions began to take root in my mind.
Who is McKinley Dixon? How did an artwork of this caliber come together with such few resources? How is this dodging real recognition?
As I sit here now composing this, I possess only a fraction of the answers to these questions. I’ll share my thoughts on them later, but for now I think it’s important I actually get to the album I’m here to review.
In June, McKinley Dixon released “Magic, Alive,” marking the fifth release in his catalog and serving as the follow up to the critically acclaimed “Beloved, Paradise, Jazz.” With all the praise I and many others gave to his previous record, there was an inevitable uncertainty around the new release. Despite holding McKinley in high regard, I was unsure if he’d be able to produce another album that could hold up to or surpass BPJ. The singles preceding the release left me with mixed feelings, so I reserved judgment until I could hear the final product.
With “Magic, Alive” now released, and having had time to digest it, I can say confidently that it holds up to the precedent set by BPJ. On “Magic, Alive,” Dixon delivers a longer, fuller, more focused experience without compromising on any of the elements that made BPJ great. “Magic, Alive” carries on longstanding themes of black struggle, coming of age, and personal identity, now woven together into a more conceptual, narrative driven package.
The record loosely follows the story of three young men attempting to use magic to resurrect their late best friend. Jumping through different periods and perspectives, the album constructs a non-linear narrative to explore the nature of friendship, loss, grief, and decide what we can truly constitute as “magic.”
INTRO & TRACK TWO
The album opens with a prelude from McKinley, an almost spoken word passage that serves as an exposition to the events unfolding over the next half hour. Following this we have the track “Sugar Water,” featuring Quelle Chris and Anjimile. This song serves as the album’s proper introduction, getting the listener acquainted with Dixon’s signature sound and introducing the wide cast of instruments that will be peppering the album. The musical dynamism and vibrancy found in his music is immediately apparent here, with sweeping strings, nasty rhythmic breaks, saxophone rambles, gospel vocals, and calculated flow switches.
TRACK THREE
Track three “Crooked Stick” brings a change of pace, ushering in a more experimental rap sound. The instrumental on this one is a bit more chaotic than the last, giving off a feeling of urgency or stress. It does, however, manage to do this without sacrificing musicality. On the chorus, Alfred swings over the beat with a heavy nasal tone. The harshness of his flow and timbre build on to the track’s aesthetic pretty effectively, and solid verses from McKinley and Ghais Guevera progress the narrative of the album while sticking nicely to the chaotic vibe of the track.
TRACK FOUR
Track four “Recitatif” smooths things over again with some subtle percussion and smooth harmony. Using jazz chord progressions and syncopated harp, the track gives off a nice mystique and builds a smooth platform for McKinley to flow over. A big highlight across this entire album for me is the way McKinley interacts with the rhythm section. Whenever McKinley starts rapping over any of the tracks, he finds the best way to complement or accentuate the rhythmic ideas already established by the instrumentalists, and it really creates a great time feel on all these songs. On the second half of “Recitatif,” we get a whole vibe change with the instrumental switching to a much more electronic and abrasive sound. To complete this shift, Teller Bank$ comes in with this crazy off the wall rap performance. I really love the energy Teller Bank$ brings to the songs he hops on. His flows range from peculiar to blatantly insane and his voice is just captivatingly odd. He’s the harsh cutting edge to McKinley’s smoothness, and I think the contrast comes off great on this track.
TRACK FIVE
With track five “Run, Run, Run Pt. II,” the album really picks up momentum and in my eyes is nothing but flawless from this point forward. This track is an evident sequel to BPJ’s “Run, Run, Run,” expanding further on its themes of kinship, community, and violence with a new instrumental backdrop. This track is honestly just a banger. It starts with this suspenseful combination of marching snare and brooding piano, building anticipation for what’s to come until McKinley starts rapping. As soon as he comes in, the instrumental switches to these sinister low brass swells that highlight his bars until the peppy drums eventually come in to fully launch the track. Once the track is in full swing it sounds absolutely fantastic. The drums are crisp and hard hitting, and the syncopated keyboard sounds great with McKinley’s effortless flow. The energy he brings with his rap performance here is honestly fantastic. His bars are concise and meaningful, and his passion is just really evident in his tone. In the chorus the deep brass swells return, now accompanied by drums and a complimentary flow from Dixon. The track is sinister and powerful, and overall just a good listen.
TRACK SIX
Following this we have “We’re Outside, Rejoice!” another song I can easily call a banger. It begins with distant saxophone and sounds of the outdoors, before launching into a smooth, rhythmic jam. The song builds up the instrumental for quite a while while you really get a chance to soak in the groove. The keyboard shells out chord extensions while the bass grooves under the tight drum beat, with saxophone lines being interjected between it all. As soon as McKinley starts rapping the rhythm of the track becomes obviously complete. The way he swings over the beat makes all the elements just hit that much harder, and an instant compulsion to head bob washes over you. The little refrain on the chorus is light and fun, and Dixon delivers more fantastic bars over the rest of this song.
TRACK SEVEN
“All The Loved Ones” begins with a strong bassline before jumping right into the gospel inspired group vocal chorus. This song carries a strong sense of rhythm, similar to the last two, but with a lighter, slower, more soulful sound. The song centers around themes of family, with solid verses on this topic being delivered by McKinley and two guests. The guest verses on this track are really fantastic in my opinion. The rapping is solid, but genuinely unique and these guys just have interesting voices to listen to. The cast of underground rappers/friends Dixon assembles to feature on his projects really strengthens their overall cohesiveness as the same cast of unknown rappers appear in better and better form on each project. At this point, these certain guest artists are just as much a part of the McKinley sound/canon as any other element.
TRACK EIGHT:
Moving forward, we pick up the pace on “F.F.O.L.” with the return of heavy brass and another verse from Teller Bank$. The bass grooves like crazy on this one with McKinley and the saxophonist both going hard as hell on the back end. This song focuses less on layered and syncopated rhythm, opting for a bit of a slower tempo with heavy emphasis on quarter notes. Keeping all the energy on downbeats like this is certainly not a bad decision as it really puts power and drive behind McKinley’s rapping. About halfway through the song we get a stark switch up both in the instrumental and McKinley’s flow. This moment is really a great example of McKinley’s ability to engage with an instrumental and come up with innovative flows as he perfectly pivots off of the rhythm change. Following this, we get another high octane verse from Teller Bank$, showcasing his energy and grating voice one last time before ducking off the record.
TRACK NINE
Track nine “Listen Gentle” is probably my least favorite song on the album but by no means a bad one. On this track we see the return of melodic trumpet, accompanied by a bright synth lead and a catchy hook from McKinley. Some parts of the verses also have this super ethereal washed out background vocal that’s pretty cool sounding.
TRACK TEN
Title track “Magic, Alive!” serves as the narrative’s effective conclusion. This track brings high energy rapping with a driving instrumental that eventually flourishes into a bright emotional climax. The bass grooves like crazy on this one with McKinley and the saxophonist both going hard as hell on the back end.
TRACK ELEVEN
Finally we reach track eleven, our final song “Could’ve Been Different.” This one is probably another highlight for me. I love everything about this track and it was my favorite of the singles by a wide margin. The string arrangements are beautiful, the overall harmonic movement sounds fantastic, the hook is beautiful, there’s just so much good stuff happening here. There’s a lot of solid rapping and singing here all around, and I’d like to mention that at the end of McKinley’s last verse he addresses a query to the poster on his wall, and rapper Blu proceeds to rap a verse back in response from the perspective of the poster. I think that’s really funny.
With that, this fantastic album comes to its close. Overall I have very little negative commentary for this album. I think there are some parts that drag just a little, but overall I think this record manages to match or exceed every part of BPJ. It also manages to do so while delivering a longer listen and more thematic focus, so in some sense it might even triumph over its predecessor as a cohesive artwork. There are still a lot of things I could say– things I want to say about McKinley Dixon, but I think this is already an overwhelming amount of text, so I’ll try and keep it concise. I really think this is a person to watch closely. With the albums that have been released and the things I’ve heard from him in interviews, it’s evident Dixon has something special. He’s a visionary, an artist’s artist if you will. To make two albums of this caliber without achieving mainstream success you have to be in it for the art. Beyond this, his ability to build such a compelling and consistent universe within his music is beyond impressive. In an era where jazz rap pretty much just means drumless sample based beats, McKinley is doing it for real. Not a single other rapper is putting this level of care and coordination into their projects. McKinley has shown an unmatched level of effort, dragging rosters of instrumentalists into studios to build rap albums from the ground up. Simply put, McKinley Dixon is pushing the paradigm of Black Music in America. With these projects McKinley has shown us not only that he is a creative force, but an immovable object in this suffocating musical landscape. If you aren’t on this train already, this is the time to get on it.