Next month, McKinley Dixon will release his Spacebomb Records debut, For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her. Today, the Richmond rapper has already shared two strong singles, and now he’s back with another preview called “Chain Sooo Heavy”.
Compared to the bouncy “Swangin'” that Dixon dropped last month, “Chain Soo Heavy” has more in common with the record’s first single “make a poet Black”. It’s an experimental jazz-rap tune in a dizzying time signature that features skittering drums, a squirmy bassline, and a loose saxophone that takes off into a ripping solo by the song’s end.
Despite all the chaos below, Dixon is able to maintain balance from a vocal standpoint, dipping into strange rhythmic pockets and bouncing around the jittery beat like a tight-rope walker doing jumping jacks. Take a listen below.
“‘Chain Sooo Heavy’ is my view on the commodification of the black experience by an outside audience,” Dixon said in a statement. “The way that trauma can be made palatable and marketable without consent, and how because of capitalism, it’s hard to escape the consolidating parts of you for an audience. It’s a self reflection on how I’m susceptible to that.”
For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her arrives in full on May 7th, and pre-orders are ongoing.
