TYGAPAW (Growing up in Jamaica, Life in NYC, Art & Music Practice, Fake Accent Records)
The PUTF Show - Episode 18 / TYGAPAWInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/pickuptheflownyc/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pickuptheflow https://putf.substack.com/TYGAPAW grew up as Dion McKenzie in Mandeville, Jamaica. Today, the Artist,producer, DJ and label owner resides in Brooklyn, New York, where they have spent thebetter part of a decade uplifting frequencies representative of the Black electronic musicdiaspora. Their sonic palette—informed by the dancehall of their hometown as much asit is the techno emanating from the warehouses of Detroit—has made them anindispensable figure in Brooklyn's electronic music scene.Since 2014, McKenzie has been carving spaces in New York for queer people of colorthrough their queer club night, and now label, Fake Accent. The platform is part of theirbroader mission to forge liberating spaces for marginalized people, particularly Black,queer and trans people, an agenda embedded in the various layers of the artist's work.Early records like the breakthrough EP Handle With Care (2019), Ode To Black TransLives (2020) and their debut album, Get Free (2020) established McKenzie not only asa skillful producer, but further as an emotive storyteller. Through their production, theyare known to weave together stories of queer immigrant life, radical self-preservationand Black communal joy.Their music, much like New York, is a cultural stew made vibrant by influences as localas New York's ballroom community and as distant as Berlin's hard techno circuit. In2021, one of techno's most vital institutions, the Berlin venue and record label Tresor,enlisted MacKkenzie to contribute to their 30th anniversary compilation, where themusician was in the company of techno luminaries like fellow contributors Juan Atkins,K-HAND and Robert Hood. In 2022, McKenzie brought their visionary take on techno tolife with a three-part techno opera, Devil Woman (Obeah Woman)—the first iteration ofwhich premiered at New York's The Chocolate Factory Theater, and Queens Museumbefore the project traveled to Berlin.2023, TYGAPAW's second album love has never been a popular movement, wasreleased on fabric Originals in the spring. This album is a special one for severalreasons: It's the first album the musician produced with hardware rather than Ableton,their first record that features their vocals prominently and it also sees McKenzie trytheir hand at songwriting. In eight tracks that hopscotch across atmospheric techno andEast Coast club, love has never been a popular movement addresses, with unshakableconfidence, fierce self-love and TYGAPAW's journey as a Jamaican reckoning with theirtrans identity.https://www.instagram.com/tygapaw/The PUTF show is produced by WAVDWGS, a video production company based in NYC.https://www.instagram.com/wavdwgs/If you'd like to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/pickuptheflow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
France