McKinley Dixon is an artist who grew up between the DMV and Jamaica, Queens, but it was while he was going to college in Richmond, Virginia, when he launched his music career in 2013 with the release of an EP called Nappy Headed. With each subsequent release, Dixon has gotten more musically ambitious while also growing in comfort in tackling both personal and big picture issues through his music. His most recent album came in 2021, when he gave us For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her. Now he is back, making his debut on City Slang with another ambitious album, Beloved! Paradise? Jazz!?

Astute readers will note that the title of this album comes from a trio of Toni Morrison novels. Morrison, of course if the Nobel Prize-winning author who broke ground as an African American woman whose novels were specifically written without a white audience in mind, and challenged readers with her sophisticated storytelling techniques while delving into a myriad of issues affecting that are unique to the African American experience. Taking that inspiration one step further, Dixon’s album opens with Hanif Abdurraqib reading a passage from Jazz over some gorgeous instrumental music. This leads into “Sun, I Rise,” which features Dixon rapping about an Icarus-type character while a harp-led beat helps create this cinematic soundscape that carries throughout the album. Dixon does an excellent job of combining live instrumentation with hip hop production techniques, blending together jazz, soul, and classical in the process which gives the album this sense of grandeur. This in turn matches what Dixon and a bunch of guests are bringing on the mic as well. With Morrison as the patron saint of this album, we get Dixon and company taking on a lot of big and small subjects, from grieving the loss of a friend to feelings of restlessness and loneliness that can come from living a creative life, to the generational bonds that are specific to the African American community. Those guests on the album include Angélica Garcia, Teller Bank$, Alfred., Ghais Guevara, Anjimile, Seline Haze, and Jayin Brown. While that is a lot of guests, Dixon does a great job of putting each person in the best position to succeed, using their specific talents to elevate the album as a whole and letting them shine for a moment. Haze in particular does a great job on “The Story So Far,” helping to bring the album to a climax before heading into the closing title track, where Brown takes us to church.

Beloved! Paradise? Jazz!? is the rare album that sounds ambitious on paper, and then turns out even better in practice. Dixon really pushed himself, both creatively and personally, and he also celebrated the collaborative process as well, all while paying respect to one of the great writers of all time. That’s a hell of a feat to pull off.