This past July, Justin Bieber released his seventh studio album, Swag, marking a major shift in the sound that Beliebers know and love. This new, auditory realm Bieber entered is a soulful, dreamy hue that the right listener would recognize from the first guitar lick on his hit song DAISIES.
This shift is largely thanks to Dijon: the artist and producer extraordinaire working overtime to bring complex, reflective yet simultaneously high-energy R&B instrumentals to the forefront of pop music.
Background on Dijon
My love for Dijon began in 2020, when I discovered the perfect addition to my rotation of moody bedroom music so characteristic of the pandemic — his 2018 single Skin. This song carries a similar appeal that Daniel Caesar’s music offers vocally, stretching a rich gospel tone into new corners. Ever since then, I’ve been enamoured by Dijon’s ability to instrumentalize his voice so completely. At times, I have found myself unable to tune into his lyrics because of how necessary it is to take in Dijon’s songs as carefully crafted art pieces in their entirety.
As is the case with most artists, Dijon’s sound can be traced by the timeline of his collaborations. And since the release of his 2021 debut album, Absolutely, Dijon’s creative direction has been tethered by a particularly influential partnership.
Relationship with Mk.gee
During the pandemic, Dijon began collaborating with Michael Gordon, a singer-songwriter from New Jersey who goes by the stage name Mk.gee. In the write-up of Absolutely on Apple Music, Dijon is quoted saying the “bizarre language” he and Gordon created led to a type of record creation he describes as “a conversational” existence.
The Many Times live music video captures the beauty of this dynamic relationship. In a dimly lit living room, musical instruments are strewn around a wooden table covered in empty beer cans as Gordon and Dijon scream the lyrics in raspy voices. Short, shaky video clips bring the viewer along with Dijon as he marches around the house, providing a window into his elusive creative process.
Even witnessing this genius through a two and a half minute long video feels like a gift. In my personal listening experience, every song Dijon has released since his and Gordon’s initial collaboration contains at least a glimmer of the magic spell their friendship casts.
Along with Dijon, Gordon was heavily involved in the making of Swag. As it goes for many music lovers of our generation, I’ll admit, my initial response to what I perceived as Bieber co-opting one of my favourite alternative artists was a little gatekeepy. But after some much needed reflection, I was elated at the realization of what this could mean for the future of popular music.
So why is any of this significant for Dijon personally, if it’s his partnerships with Mk.gee and Bieber that have cast him into the spotlight?
The Future of Pop
Weeks after the release of Bieber’s Swag, Dijon shocked his fans with the surprise release of his sophomore album, Baby.
There are a few defining features of this project that immediately stood out to me.
As I’ve mentioned, Dijon has been heavily invested in his collaborations with other artists in recent years like Mk.gee, Bieber, Bon Iver and Leith Ross. However, Baby, despite the appearance of an obvious Bieber allusion, tells a different story.
While Absolutely felt as conversational as Dijon himself described it, Baby — a title referencing his first steps into fatherhood — stretches Dijon’s experimental instinct further than it has ever reached before.
The commitment to producing a personal work in such a chaotic time of life for this rising star and new father is indicative of his drive to push forward and expand the boundaries of the pop scene. With Baby, Dijon demands for tensions to be heard, from contradictions between his individual sound and the influence of his collaborators to the constant oscillation between harmony and dissonance in certain samples and vocal tracks.
While Baby is undoubtedly a culmination of everyone who has touched Dijon’s life, it remains radically individual, challenging listeners introduced to him through Bieber to embrace the experimental.
