McKinley Dixon's been busy since we last checked in with him.
His 2023 release Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? became an instant critical smash and globalized Dixon’s fanbase.
The album was lauded by all the major music outlets, plus Creed actor and Chase Bank celebrity creative director Michael B. Jordan, who used “Run, Run, Run” to score a national ad for the company. “Run, Run, Run” also boosted Dixon’s street cred among soccer-loving gamer teens, thanks to a high-profile sync on EA SPORTS FC™ 25.
In February, the rapper breached the front lines of indie rock as the sole featured artist on Cheekface’s new album, Middle Spoon, with the song “Military Gum.”
McKinley’s back, Rejoice! Rejoice!
Now, the Virginia-born, Chicago-based rapper is back with a new project that veers from the science fiction of its predecessor into something more occult. Magic, Alive!, the fifth studio album from McKinley Dixon, expands upon its author’s musical universe with sun-kissed poetics, unyielding jazz and passion ad infinitum.
Full of allusions to his previous records, Magic, Alive! is rife with nods to Mama, her Kitchen Table, the Sun and even a straight up sequel to his biggest hit, “Run, Run, Run Pt. II.” The story centers around a group of kids coping with the untimely death of a friend and trying to keep their spirit alive. When the tape loads on the first track, "Watch My Hands," Dixon deeply exhales over cloudy instrumentation. It's a prelude of sorts, and the simplest song you'll hear on the project, which then jumps right into the album's bold lead single, "Sugar Water (feat. Quelle Chris and Anjimile)."
Released on June 6, the album is already stacking up streams and vinyl is selling out fast. This could be due to the neo-jazz stylings of songs like "Magic, Alive!" and "We're Outside, Rejoice!," the impassioned gospel elements throughout or even the alternative appeal of "Could've Been Different (feat. Blu & Shamir)," which we've been spinning on Studio One. It could also be that, after seven years, Dixon has established himself as a singular, can't-miss voice at the forefront of hip-hop.
Dixon has a bohemian approach to album crafting, and his sensibilities as a collaborator come highly regarded by his peers. As a storyteller, he's gifted at conjuring up complex worlds, myths and moments, but he also knows it’ll eventually take a village to truly make it sing. That’s why he gives artists, even visual ones like illustrator Ladon Alex, the freedom to go nuts.
Iowans on Magic, Alive!
That collaborative spirit continues with Magic, Alive!. Dixon called upon an army of well-regarded rappers, singers and good friends to fill out the album's 11 colorful tracks. Among them is Des Moines rapper-producer Teller Bank$ (featured on two tracks, “Recitatif" and “F.F.O.L.”), who first opened for Dixon at a 2018 show at (the late) Vaudeville Mews.
Bank$’s son and twin daughters (credited as The Lil Homies) also appear on the record, alongside Iowan (turned Chicago favorite) Elizabeth Moen and Sudanese-American singer Sinkane. The group sing as a background ensemble on Dixon’s guest-packed “All The Loved Ones (What Would We Do???) (feat. ICECOLDBISHOP and Pink Siifu).
The resulting album feels like a pure distillation of the collaborative spirit fostered when working with Dixon: perfectly shaped by the many hands that touched it. McKinley Dixon’s new album, Magic, Alive!, dropped June 6 on City Slang Records and is available everywhere.
