Dxtr Spits and the late Nikki Giovanni give a beautiful testimony w/ release “Drowning in the Open: A Final Letter to Our Brothers”

Dxtr Spits has been instrumental not only in the evolution of Chicago’s music ecosystem and how it operates as a business, but in expanding the conversations that exist within it. For years, Dxtr has been intentional about speaking on mental health, particularly the realities Black men carry, while creating space for larger conversations around wellness, community and what it actually means to take care of one another. Through spoken word, poetry, music and his work throughout the community, there has always been a larger mission behind the art, building the kind of camaraderie he believes Chicago deserves, more unified, more intentional and with more resources circulating between the people doing the work. His project with the legendary late Nikki Giovanni feels like an extension of that mission..

The chemistry between their words is beautiful. Together and separately, Nikki Giovanni and Dxtr Spits create something worth sitting with more than once. The writing carries weight without sacrificing replay value, and the project further proves Dxtr’s ability to move between disciplines without losing the intention behind his gifts. We may even go to be as forward to say that this is some of Dxtr’s best work to date. Not even because of the artist that is featured on this project, but because of the level of creative professionalism seen throughout this whole album is something to take in. From the creative nuanced record “Castle” where the upbringing of the blk boy experience is shown painfully but with such incredible wordplay, to the family reflected record “Colors” where so many of Dxtr’s inspirations are shown and described as stepping stones to explain the artist we see before us. “Drowning in the Open: A Final Letter to Our Brothers” is truly a brilliant body of work that is proof that the spoken word genre is truly a powerful lane to reflect on our most important thoughts. Dxtr Spits and Nikki Giovanni reminds all of us that point with this album..

Our one critique is really a challenge, document this moment even more. We want the visual album. We want the documentary pieces. We want the conversations about how this collaboration happened, what those sessions felt like, what Dxtr learned from Nikki Giovanni and what it means now to carry this work forward after her passing. Because a collaboration like this shouldn’t exist only as a release. There is history inside the process, and that history deserves to be preserved just as intentionally as the music itself..

Take a listen, sit with the words, run it back, and let us know what you hear..