IMMIGRANT by TYGAPAW

“It's not possible to constantly hold onto crisis. You have to have the love, and you have to have the magic. That's also life." - Toni Morrison

On 23rd of September, Jamaican artist Dion McKenzie aka TYGAPAW will join with Tresor Records to release IMMIGRANT, a two-track digital EP that marks a new chapter in their artistic journey.

With emotions to the fore on both cuts, TYGAPAW uses their music to detail two journeys they have undertaken over recent years:

M32 riddim is a sonic representation of the pulse that races when survival mode kicks in; a pulse that is ever present as an immigrant in the United States of America. As such, the music is alert, verging on oppressive: fast-paced and constructed of waves of synths that feel like alarms and sirens heralding drums that could represent the heavy footfall of escape.

In stark contrast, second track Black Trans Masculine Experience is a vulnerable, intimate, melodic piece composed of loop-based overdubs and speech that gives profound insight into the isolation and erasure that comes while transitioning. Through a recorded conversation that took place in TYGAPAW’s living room in the fall of 2024, Kings-Lee Rose describes the process of becoming invisible as he transitions from being perceived as a Black woman to a Black man, and the drastic social shift that takes place during that process.

The message of Black Trans Masculine Experience is further enhanced by the self-directed and produced video which illustrates the emotional content and the feelings of solitude whilst also making space for the love and magic.

Together, the two pieces demonstrate the broad palette of an artist who takes their struggles and transmutes them into a powerful statement, or as McKenzie states, into “the sound of resilience”.

Multi-Disciplinary artist born and raised in Jamaica.

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