On Thursday, December 9th, Zone 1 of Brooklyn’s Elsewhere music venue was packed to the gills for a night of terrific rap music. McKinley Dixon’s name has been reaching far and wide with his newest album Magic, Alive achieving major critical acclaim. His songs feature incredible storytelling over instrumentals reminiscent of the greats like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul or The Pharcyde.
To begin the night, one of the Dixon’s closest collaborators, Teller Bank$, took the stage. In stark contrast to Dixon, Bank$’ musical tone is cold and ferocious drawing inspiration from Buffalo-based hiphop collective, Griselda. His energy while performing was erratic resulting in his voice switching tone intensely. His bag of vocal tricks is insane with dozens of voices that he raps in.
Teller even brought out one of his own collaborators, Rent Moneyy, to spit some of his own verses. His deep, raspy delivery served Bank$ hardcore hiphop production incredibly well.
After Teller Bank$, Deem Spencer from Queens shortly took the stage. While on stage, Deem’s energy was much more brighter and emotional. With his music coming from a much lighter place, Spencer was able to turn the energy up with his lush and poppy tracks. With some crowd interaction, the choruses of his songs would fill the room with everyone singing along.
Finally, McKinley Dixon walked on and played an hour long gauntlet of songs all across his catalogue. One of Dixon’s biggest strengths is his live band. The musicians he chose are incredibly talented with a palpable chemistry between them all. In a live setting it takes these already incredibly beautiful songs to another level.
Midway through the show, Dixon brought Teller Bank$ back on stage to provide his features on songs “Mezzanine Tippin’” and “Recitatif.” Every song through the night had a moment where the crowd was engaged and alive especially with “Mezzanine Tippin’.”
McKinley Dixon is a truly one of a kind talent in the current landscape of hip-hop music. His catalogue is fantastic and his live show is even better. If you get the chance to see McKinley, do it now because hopefully he will be playing much bigger venues than this very soon.
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