For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her - McKinley Dixon

 

Debut album from Virginia rapper, McKinley Dixon on Spacebomb

As a white Anglo-Saxon music lover, you are always tentative to review black rap music. I was born a stones throw from the breeding ground of Chas and Dave and the old architectural haunts of Flanagan and Allen, that is my musical heritage. Yet to listen to black music is always an eye opening occasion, it brings you into new grounds of language, composition and social exploration.

Unlike the gangsta rap so prevalent in my formative university years such as 50 Cent, my ears have always been more keen to listen to the socially conscious rappers - those who use their platform as a means to get a message across of what it means to be a young black person in the United States of America.

The first artist who piqued my interest was Lupe Fiasco - his double hit of The Cool - was seminal and is somewhat overshadowed by the monster that was the early career of Kanye West and then you have the works of Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean.

This new album by Richmond based artist, McKinley Dixon is more in the part of socially aware rap but also uses the music as a way of exploring his own social form but showcases the power of communication and connection

Tracks such as brown shoulders is so soulful yet has the message underlying of processing grief, yet you still have those chart hits such as Never Will Know a collaboration with Micah James and Gold Midas a feelgood jam which goes hand in hand with the soulful protective styles (feat Abby T).

Dixon is a well read artist indebted to the recently departed Toni Morrision on his track 'B.B.N.E' using her words to time travel to a different time.

'Bless the Child' has three beat switches but shows Dixon tracing patterns through time, it is as if Dixon is challenging black people to revisit more than one timeline and question everything about their place in society.

The huge array of influences across the musical spectrum running from jazz, rap, soul and blues means this will be a ripe live show once we get to that sense of normality. Dixon thinks of himself as a time traveller and in his words, 'Storytelling is time travel, it's taking the listener to that place. Quick time travel. Magic. These raps I’m making are no different than stories told around the campfire. They elongate the culture'.

This album marks Dixon out as a force to be reckoned with as a solo artist and collaborator across the music diaspora, a genuine talent of intellect and artistic integrity.

Follow McKinley Dixon on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her is out from Spacebomb or bandcamp

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review op