mckinley dixon

THE TITLE OF McKinley Dixon’s Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? is a statement of intent — a direct homage to three novels by Toni Morrison, whom he calls “the greatest rapper ever” for the depth of substance in her work. Dixon’s first exposure to Morrison came from his mother’s book collection at their home in Annapolis, Maryland, where he lived when he wasn’t spending summers with his grandparents in Queens. “I was like, ‘Holy shit, Beloved?’” Dixon, 27, raves over Zoom from Chicago. “She’s writing.”

Dixon began making music in Annapolis; once he got to Virginia Commonwealth University, he immersed himself in Richmond’s DIY art scene. “I would be nowhere without my Black and brown trans queer folk,” he says. That community, and the lessons he learned, permeate his early releases — lush projects full of his friends’ live instrumentation and keen insights on Black identity. His debut album, 2021’s For My Mama and Anyone Who Looks Like Her, vaulted him higher with deft lyrical displays like “Make a Poet Black,” where he raps about “joyful hymnals packed with subliminals/To distract from the fact that I’m without my kinfolk.”

One of the most moving moments on Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? is “Tyler, Forever,” a joyful ode to a late friend. He released it as part of his Kitchen Table Sessions YouTube series, named in tribute to photographer Carrie Mae Weems’ work — another artistic triumph he’s looking to amplify within hiphop. “There’s a lot of art that a lot of this literary community doesn’t know about,” Dixon says. “I’m going to try to be the bridge.”