Born in Richmond, American McKinley Dixon calls himself the 'son of the ghost-haunted South.' For the better part of a decade, the rapper has transformed his experiences as a native Southerner, part-time Queens resident, and avid literature student into picturesque musical reflections on joy, pain, and perseverance.

The 29-year-old musician had his breakthrough with his 2021 album For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her and delivered the successor Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? two years later. Both releases are instrumentally rich discs wrapped in the pain and sorrow of losing a young friend. In emotional explosions, Dixon runs a marathon of literary references, detailed personal narratives and images from Greek mythology.

On June 6th of this year, McKinley Dixon's newest album will be released - the soaring and exuberant Magic, Alive!. Here the rapper continues his grief process with the story of three children who lose their best friend and subsequently struggle with an inner storm. The significant twist to the story, however, is that the trio wonders what they can do to get their friend back. Or at least meet him again, so that their friendship doesn't end with death.

Magic, Alive!'s first single "Sugar Water" is a discussion about how to make fleeting moments last forever, and how to carry those special moments that are no longer here through time and space. Dixon asks the question: "What is the price of eternal life when it is lived through the memories of others?"

Get swept up in McKinley Dixon's R&B-infused hip-hop when the haunted son fittingly hits Ideal Bar on Halloween, October 31st.