McKinley Dixon confirms himself as one of the most powerful voices in underground hip-hop with Magic, Alive!, a concept album that blends jazz-rap and neo-soul into a dense, ritualistic, and deeply emotional work. Through the story of three kids trying to bring their friend back to life, Dixon explores magic as an act of memory, community, and resistance to grief.
Run, Run, Run Pt. II stands out as one of the emotional and narrative cores of the album—a key moment in which McKinley Dixon revisits and transforms the themes he first expressed in Run, Run, Run, released two years earlier on Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?.
In the 2023 track, running becomes a metaphor for Black survival—an act of communal self-defense and resistance, as physical as it is existential: one might run from the police, from past traumas, and from the threat of death, but also from the resignation imposed by a brutal society built on the exclusion of difference. Alongside running, flight appears as another form of spiritual liberation, which can also be interpreted as premature death.
Unlike the first version, this second chapter is darker and more cinematic. In line with the concept album’s storyline, survival is turned into a true ritual meant to exorcise death.
Religious and funereal imagery becomes sharper and more visionary: the deceased boy is transformed into a suspended presence, caught between life and an afterlife that symbolizes memory, love, and community.
Within the bitter awareness that love and youth are not enough to protect people, emerges the will to run beyond death as an act of emotional reclamation: running is no longer just surviving, but also resisting through remembrance—keeping the lost ones alive.
In the end, Run, Run, Run Pt. II is a celebration of a shared, resilient, and spiritually alive identity. It’s a track that turns pain into myth, friendship into magic, and loss into living memory.
Go give these tracks—and this beautiful new album—a listen. It’s without a doubt one of my favorites from this unpredictable 2025.
May the Music be with you!