Tygapaw

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 the better partof a decade uplifting frequencies representative of the Black electronic music diaspora.Their sonic palette—informed by the dancehall of their hometown as much as it is thetechno emanating from the warehouses of Detroit—has made them an indispensablefigure 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 Trans Lives (2020) and their debut album, Get Free (2020) established McKenzie not only as a skillful producer, but further as an emotive storyteller. Through their production, they are known to weave together stories of queer immigrant life, radical self-preservation and Black communal joy.2023, TYGAPAW's second album love has never been a popular movement, was releasedon fabric Originals in the spring. In eight tracks that hopscotch across atmospheric techno and East Coast club, love has never been a popular movement addresses, with unshakable confidence, fierce self-love and TYGAPAW's journey as a Jamaican reckoning with their trans identity.