McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!

Richmond-born, Chicago-based rapper McKinley Dixon’s new album, ‘Magic, Alive!’ began life when Dixon received an unexpected email from English producer Sam Yamaha. Dixon’s early beats had inspired Yamaha’s own nascent work, and he wanted Dixon to listen. Before long, Dixon rendezvoused with him in London, digging through his archive to find a wealth of beats that resonated with his own approach and with the burgeoning concept for ‘Magic, Alive!’ In July 2024, Dixon returned to his native Richmond, Virginia, with a tranche of sounds from Sam Yamaha and Koff, with whom he’d worked before. 

Alongside a cavalcade of guests and friends, from the mighty singer Anjimile and imaginative Alabama emcee Pink Siifuto trombonist Reggie Pace and harpist Eli Owens, Dixon split these beats wide open, adding hooks and horn lines and guest spots. He strung several songs together, too, so that ‘Magic, Alive!’ moves like a dream or, at the very least, an alternate reality where new rules reign. For the better part of a decade, Dixon has been turning his experiences as a native Southerner sometimes living in Queens and an eager student of literature into vivid reflections on joy, pain, and perseverance. His breakthrough, though, began with 2021’s much-loved ‘For My Mama and ‘Anyone Who Look Like Her’ and continued with 2023’s ‘Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?’, both instrumentally rich exercises in storytelling wrapped up in the trauma and grief of losing a young friend. Those albums were emotional expurgations, Dixon dumping his feelings into marathons of literary references where Toni Morrison and Greek mythology shared space with detailed personal reflections.