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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 part
of a decade uplifting frequencies representative of the Black electronic music diaspora.
Since 2014, McKenzie has been carving spaces in New York for queer people of color
through their queer club night, and now label, Fake Accent. The platform is part of their
broader 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.
In 2021, the Berlin venue and record label Tresor, enlisted MacKkenzie to contribute to their 30th anniversary compilation, where the musician was in the company of techno luminaries like fellow contributors Juan Atkins, K-HAND and Robert Hood.
2023, TYGAPAW's second album love has never been a popular movement, was released
on 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.
