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Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? regrettably slipped under my radar when it first released in 2023 – unsurprising for me, since I never seem to be able to find albums until one or two years after their initial release, but then I watched Mic The Snare’s “Top 10 Albums of 2023” video, and I was introduced to a phenomenal album.

Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? leaves a strong impression immediately with the first track, where Dixon hooks you in from the first track with a powerful, charismatic spoken-word poetry introduction, and follows it up with 9 more amazing tracks.

I should preemptively add that this is a jazz rap album, and if you’re one of those people irritated by jazz, you will not enjoy this. For me though, I knew I was in for something good the moment the silky jazz chorus hit my eardrums on Sun, I rise. One of the shining qualities of this album is how succinct it is with its material and social commentary. With only 10 tracks in total, Dixon ensures that each track on this album is purposeful and has something unique to bring to the proverbial table. The lyricism of this album is downright poetic, and Dixon offers compelling, rich, and sometimes harsh imagery and storytelling over the black experience and personal trauma against luscious, triumphant jazz instrumentals. Political albums are often not easy to make as they can at times come off as self-congratulatory or performative, in the sense that they are only wearing the aesthetics of politics, but with Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?, Dixon is unafraid of addressing difficult or controversial issues, underlined by the uncensored reality of his own experience.

I might not know how this album fares in the scope of all the rap albums released in 2023 considering my limited knowledge of the genre, but Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? was one of the freshest and most unabashedly bold records I had heard this year. Please give this album a listen if you can.

Best Track(s): “Run, Run, Run”, “Live! from the Kitchen Table”, “Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?”

Rating: 8.5/10