Xavior Black is not here to make music for easy listening. On his newest release, Meditations & Dreams is a collection of tracks that simply refuses to sit quietly in the background—it’s here to get right up in your face, maybe shake your shoulders a bit as the lush instrumentation perks your ears up and inspires you to think about things. The independent hip-hop artist has crafted a project that blends boom bap beats, classical piano, jazz harmonies, and spoken word poetry into something that somehow feels both highly personal and politically urgent. The three tracks on this release tackle income inequality, race, and self-discovery, but not in the “here’s a PowerPoint presentation on systemic oppression” way. No, Xavior Black is way smarter than that.
Xavior Black said this EP would either deeply challenge or strongly affirm your worldview. And normally, when an artist makes a claim like that, you brace yourself for something pretentious—like, oh great, here comes another 12-minute spoken-word interlude about the nature of time. But no. He actually delivers. And pretty easily at that. The production is both polished and raw, like a well-aged jazz record played through a slightly busted speaker. The beats hit hard, but the lush instrumental layers add a depth that feels almost cinematic. Some tracks feel carefully constructed, while others seem to breathe and evolve, almost as if they’re improvising in real time.
Black’s sound is something special. The way he blends hip-hop, jazz, and classical piano is somehow deeply respectful of tradition while also feeling like he’s actively trying to break music apart and put it back together in a weirder way that’s more at home with modern sounds.
Listening to it is like eavesdropping on a late-night debate between James Baldwin, Thelonious Monk, and McKinley Dixon that only speaks in profound jazz metaphors in the same underground café wherein the vibe of Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered is best exhibited. (For reference, untitled unmastered sounds like a live performance of a jazz band in an underground café, and in the best ways possible).
Meditations pairs boom bap rhythms with dreamlike piano, immediately setting the tone for introspection and self-exploration, playing like a conversation between old-school hip-hop and modern-day self-reflection, with bars that dig into the tension between internal peace and external chaos. It’s meditative, but not in a “lo-fi beats to study to” way—more like “lo-fi beats to reconsider your worldview to”. Imagine a philosophy professor dropping bars about self-actualization over an absolutely gorgeous jazz-infused beat.
Another track highlight, American Dream does not ease you in—it grabs you by the collar and yeets you directly into the crushing weight of late-stage capitalism. This track is furious, relentless, and absolutely not here to make you feel comfortable. It starts off steady, like the calm before a storm, but as it progresses, the production gets more frantic, more suffocating, mirroring the way society chews people up and spits them out for profit. And then there’s the line: “They can’t hear you from the bottom of the pyramid”, which is just one of those horrifyingly true statements that gets worse the more you think about it.
What makes Meditations & Dreams really shine is its ability to challenge without alienating, to push boundaries without losing focus. It’s an album that doesn’t just say things—it asks questions, forces reflection, and refuses to spoon-feed easy answers. This isn’t just an EP; Xavier Black has made an experience. It’s an invitation to think, feel, and possibly rethink everything you thought you knew. And the best part? You won’t even be mad about it. In fact, you’d end up all the better for it.
Follow Xavior Black
About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
