Chicago-based rapper McKinley Dixon announces his new album, Magic, Alive!, out 6 June via City Slang, and presents new single ‘Sugar Water’ (ft. Quelle Chris & Anjimile). 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 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.
In many ways, the breathless and ebullient Magic, Alive! continues the work of its predecessors: It is the story of three kids who lose their best friend and wrestle with the subsequent turmoil. The essential twist, though, is that the trio wonder what they can do to bring their pal back or, at the very least, reconvene with him, so that their friendship does not end with mortality. Indeed, the crux of Magic, Alive! is a broad contemplation of what constitutes magic at all. Why can’t it be the guy who simply gets away with something by ducking from authorities, or the slippery way the world starts to feel after a long pull on a joint or a slow drink from a bottle? Can it merely be the belief in something we cannot plainly see just as well as an abiding trust in miracles, spells, and portals for something beyond our own experience?
In Dixon’s own words:
“‘Sugar Water’ is a discussion on how to make fleeting moments last forever, and how to carry those not here with you through time and space. It raises the question ‘what’s the price to pay for an eternal life lived through others memories?’”
He raps: “I guess if it don’t kill you, make you harder /Bring him back just for my heart?/ Shit, it seem an easy barter.”
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. “It’s like a celebration when I make a record back in Richmond,” he says. “Everybody has grown, but now here we are together again.”
McKinley Dixon Live Dates
October
16 Dublin, IE – The Workman’s Cellar
17 Glasgow, UK – The Hug and Pint
18 Manchester, UK – YES
19 Bristol, UK – Rough Trade Bristol
21 London, UK – The Lexington
22 Paris, FR – Le Pop-up du Label
23 Antwerp, BE – Trix Cafe
24 Cologne, DE – Veedel Club
27 Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
28 Hamburg, DE – Knust
30 Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn
31 Copenhagen, DK – Vega (Ideal Bar)
November
1 Berlin, DE – Kantine am Berghain
For more information on McKinley Dixon on facebook and instagram.
