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Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

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IF JOE MORRISSEY WERE A 90s RAPPER, WHO WOULD HE BE? THE CHEATS MOVEMENT PODCAST TAKES THIS ON

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RVA Magazine is proud to showcase The Cheats Movement on WRIR every other Sunday. Produced in Richmond, VA and hosted by Cheats and Gigi Broadway — the show tackles a wide range of hard topics within city politics, race, hip-hop, and culture. It’s worth a listen for anyone interested in what is happening and what is being done about it.

On the latest episode of the Cheats Movement on WRIR, Gigi and Cheats discuss how Father’s need more love on Father’s Day. Cheats speaks with Dr. Julian Hayter (University of Richmond), author of The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia (Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century), on the return of Joe Morrissey, and Cheats and Gigi interview hip-hop writer and VA MC Fair (Complex, XXL) on his viral tweet about independent hip-hop. Please subscribe to the Cheats Movement Podcast everywhere podcast are available. #WESEEIT

McKinley Dixon opens up about upcoming jazz/rap fusion record and the importance of diversifying hiphop’s message

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In his forthcoming album, The Importance of Self Belief, Richmond rap/jazz musician McKinley Dixon broadens the scope of the challenging subject matter and sentimental dialogue indicative of his prior album, Who Taught You To Hate Yourself?. With an ensemble of gifted jazz musicians and an arsenal of talented collaborators, Dixon brings new perspectives, experiences, and crucial conversations to his captivating narrative.

These albums follow the story of a young, Black man who, after witnessing a drive-by, is confronted with the grim realities of the sociopolitical atmosphere and class struggle around him. “The first [album] is the boy sees a drive by in his neighborhood and starts reflection and seeing things: racism, police brutality, gang violence, what is okay what is not okay,” said Dixon in an interview with RVAMag.

The sophomore album in what is to be a trilogy, The Importance of Self-Belief, does not have an official release date yet, but Dixon said it continues the storyline of Who Taught while taking up issues that didn’t come up in the preceding album. It focuses more on Dixon’s conversations with trans people, femme people, and black women.

“The flaw about Who Taught You To Hate Yourself is it didn’t talk about women/femm people enough,” he said. “There’s a line – it’s not my story to tell so I try to portray it as lightly as I can while definitely jumping to the issues and that’s not something I expected to do with Who Taught You to Hate Yourself. I was just thinking about Black issues. Now with this one, I realize without femme people, without specifically Black femme people, there’s nothing – there’s nothing without women.“

The Importance of Self-Belief progresses the narrative of personal growth and identity established in Who Taught. In the upcoming album, Dixon parts from traditions of the familiar “coming of age” trope to create a coming of age story that is bigger than the focal character himself.

The lens, which focused on the young man who witnessed the drive-by in the last record, is now shifted to be more so from his perceptive, accounting for the depth and influence of femme figures and the characters own conceptualizations of race and gender.

“This one includes more concepts of femininity, maternity, and masculinity in how it is seen through the Black male subject,” said Dixon. “I decided to talk more in celebration of women and femme figures in my life and how, even at the base of this world that I created that is loosely based off things that I’ve experience, it’s still the Black mom who is the main figure.”

“The drive-by is the fictional story,” said Dixon. “But the experiences of going through stages of questioning, experience of losing loved ones and friends to different things, and being in different environments that force you to do different things are all based on things that I’ve experienced or things that loved ones close to me have experienced.”

Dixon said that there is much he has learned between the two albums regarding the importance of visibility of marginalized people, motivating much of The Importance of Self-Belief’s content.

“Trans rights are something that we need to talk about and how trans rights are human rights. We need to discuss these things. Or the murder rate for Black trans women,” he said. “These issues that face and surround Black people, my brothers and sisters [and family], but how nobody is talking about them in the community and out of the community.”

Both albums have featured a significant collaborative effort. Dixon worked with producer Onirologia on each. Both albums also feature a number of guest artists. The indie fusion outfit Vanilla Summit return to collaborate on the forthcoming album as well.

And of course, Dixon’s band of adroit jazz musicians lights up each song, on and off the record. Dixon began making music hardly three years ago as a college Freshmen. He recruited most of his band through VCU’s jazz program, and they have been growing together since.

“They’re all incredible and you can hear the maturity from Who Taught You To Hate Yourself? to the new stuff,” said Dixon.

Live performances give an especially electrifying experience. The chemistry between the band is infectious and necessary for the improvisational style. Dixon notes that the pleasure in playing with seasoned jazz musicians is his own anticipation for what he might hear. “Every solo is different,” he said. “Every time is different.”

As for the third and final installment in the trilogy, Dixon isn’t ready to share information.

But keep an eye out for a release date on The Importance of Self-Belief on Wadada records. In the meantime, the single for the album, “The Story So Far” is available below:

Catch Dixon on May 5 and May 29 at Strange Matter.

Top image via David Muessig

MOON’s brand of hiphop puts the RVA artist in the international spotlight

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Richmond’s hip-hop scene has long seen underground stalwarts provide the city with an eclectic sound. Smooth up-and-comer Daryian Hallion, aka MOON is making a name for himself and capitalize on the strong networking he’s done since emerging on the scene a few years ago.

With a style that invokes West-Coast rap and jazzy dance, MOON’s upcoming project titled Yacht Music XIII harkens back to a self-described refined taste and story-telling concept.

RVA Mag spoke to MOON to discuss hip-hop music, his burgeoning career thus far and Yacht Music XIII.

“My whole life I’ve done rapping stuff but I want to say I’ve been taking it seriously for maybe three years,” MOON said. “Like actually writing it down and not just freestyling with my friends,”

Influenced by all types of hip-hop music, MOON describes his style as “a weird brainchild of Curren$y, Jay-Z and Snoop if you could pick all of the influences of those guys.” His song “All Night Long” captures that story-telling style and dance production.

With influences such as those, MOON blends his best version of flow, lyricism, and smooth production. Today’s hip-hop market doesn’t highlight rappers such as MOON as much; a testament he wouldn’t speak on too much as not to appear jealous.

“It’s hard to pinpoint, its in a weird place right now,” MOON said when asked about the state of hip-hop. There are still a few artists that warrant attention for their proficiency at rapping along with the eclectic producers they work with. Soulection, an urban artistry collective based in Los Angeles that has been at the forefront of a musical renaissance and known for such production recently added MOON under their artist development wing.

Along with the studio time and resources Soulection has provided MOON, he is also getting backing from an indie label based in London called Underbalance Inc.

“One of the dudes that started it hit me up and said he wanted to do a release with me and I realized he was in London,” MOON said. “I set up a date to go to London and kick it with them and it popped off really well and I kicked it there and stayed at his house, it went really well.”

With Soulection and Underbalance Inc. in his corner, MOON is readying the release of “Yacht Music XIII,” a collaboration mixtape with producer Ozark due sometime in August.

MOON describes his chemistry with Ozark as one-of-a-kind and a best friend outside of the music they produce. The relationship only adds to the quality of their musical collaboration.

The project gets its name from the production feel MOON gets from Ozark’s beats, comparing them to heist film Ocean’s 11. “All of Ozark’s beats remind me of heist beats with a few girls and mimosas on a boat.”

The tape will be based around a heist that starts at the planning phase, then a completion of the heist and then a mystery as to whether the heist went bad, or “escape on the boat with mimosas,” MOON said. “I think it’s cool to leave it open ended.”

A track list that’ll be roughly 7 or 8 songs comes from a stylistic change to shortening the product for more quality. “I used to put a lot of songs on tapes and stuff, but as I grew with music I realized less is more if you have a higher concentration of what you’re doing,” MOON said.

With an August release date in mind that corresponds with a few shows lined up for him, namely a gig at the The Camel as part of the REC room on August 9th, MOON is preparing to take his career to the next level.

With a proper debut album called “Just Friends” due sometime next year, MOON is ready to make his mark in hip-hop.