Mick Jenkins

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• Sunday, Oct 20, 2024  7:30pm

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Whether it’s pondering the way water is being used as a political weapon(“The Waters”), the “strangelove” that rappers show towards vulnerable women, or eventhe idea that the internet is our new nicotine (“Is, ThisCigarettes?”), Mick Jenkins has made his name off jazz-enthused conceptalbums that powerfully probe at the collective subconscious. He consistentlyuncovers answers that push the listener away from the pitfalls of capitalismand onto more righteous paths.

Just like Marvin Gaye’s output in the 1970s, the South SideChicago-raised rapper and singer-songwriter has prioritized records [2018’s Piecesof a Man, 2020’s The Circus] that feel like pep talks not only tohimself but for wider Black America. His discography is filled with astonishingmoments of virtue and honesty (on “Vibe” he admitted he missed out on sayinggoodbye to his grandma before she passed because “I was too busy rapping”).Jenkins’ ultimate goal has been to wake his people up from a slumber and makethe dangerous city he emerged from be defined more for its shining intellectand less for the hopelessness of black-on-black violence.

Yet with new album, The Patience, Jenkins experimented with a newapproach entirely; something he believes has resulted in career-best music. “Alot of these new songs were made when I stopped focusing on a concept and justwrote spontaneously to the beat,” says the 32-year-old. “It gave me a new levelof freedom.” And this freedom has resulted in an exhilarating looseness toJenkins’ raps, and the feeling you’re listening to an artist who has finallylet go of the weight of corporate-driven expectations and said: fuck it.

Amid lighting some sage to stave off evil spirits (or major labelA&Rs, depending on your perspective), Jenkins uses vibrant opener “MichelinStar” to juxtapose his rap career with a chef working their way up from thebottom; it’sbasically TV’sThe Bear as a rap song. “Guapanese”, which hasa soul cleansing sound more indebted to elegant jazz pianists like Ahmad Jamaland John Coltrane than traditional hip hop, criticizes studio thug rappers whoboast about money yet refuse to pay the bail money to get day-one friends outof prison.

On all these songs Jenkins tends to start from a place of anger, but hisvoice softens by the music’s conclusion, as clarity finally comes into sharpfocus. This is something that recalls the up-and-down vocal textures of Nas on“One Mic”. Meanwhile, the gloomier “Sitting Ducks” carries a contagious hyperconfidence despite its skittish, paranoid sound, as Jenkins spits therewindable punchline: “Ain’t no stopping me I’m above can’t; I’mapostrophes.” This song also contains the profound sentiment of “The dayyou plant the seed isn’t the day you eat the fruit”—just like the album’stitle, this speaks directly to Jenkins’ endurance and where he now findshimself in the rap game.

“I spent a large part of my career being frustrated at not being able tosecure big name features or even get the right budgets for a music video,”Jenkins admits with a trademark honesty. “I always felt like I was waiting onother people! But I feel like I planted a lot of seeds over the years, andthey’re finally starting to bear fruit.”

He explains further: “I honestly feel like my career is only juststarting now! Everything that came before The Patience was a differentme. This is the first record where I own 100% of my masters and I don’t have toanswer to someone else [at a label]. The industry is a fucked up place. It isan ocean filled with sharks who will chew you up and spit out your bones, butthis project is about what it is like to endure through that and make it to theother side. From intentionality to ability to creativity and personal agency, Ifeel like the best shit I will ever create is now in front of me.”

Some of the new record’s most fascinating ideas can be found on leadsingle, “Smoke Break Dance” with JID, where the crux of smoking cannabis todeal with generational pain is both celebrated and doubted, and closer “Mop”where Jenkins compares the rap game to a pyramid scheme. “The fundamentals of apyramid scheme is the system only working for the people at the top and not forthe people at the bottom,” he says. “That’s especially true of hip hop.”

Jenkins is already planning a world tour and would like to perform thesenew live instrumentation-fuelled songs with a seven piece band at variousglobal intimate venues. He’s also working on a new book, where he will dissectthe lyrical meaning to 25 career-spanning best songs. The latter was somethinginspired by the dissatisfaction of Genius.com always misinterpreting his bars.

For years Mick Jenkins has felt underrated and like his diverse abilityto shift between sage-like, wisdom-filled bars and chest-clearing neo soulmelodies hasn’t been elevated to the plateau it truly deserves. However, with ThePatience, you’re hit with the overwhelming feeling that Jenkins’ is goingto experience a second wind and that a music industry devoid ofconsciously-minded artists is about to get a much-needed adrenaline shot.

“Just like the Migos, I am trying to blow up twice. I am entering a new phase in mylife,” an excited Jenkins concludes before his attention once again returns tohis brilliant new album’s opening song.

“Look, before it felt like I was fucking chopping onions for 5 hours aday, but now my sound is at Michelin star level and I’m sitting on the top ofthe totem pole. Once you plant a seed you need to spend years watering it andnurturing it. With this project I feel like all that patience is finally startingto pay off… it’s a beautiful feeling.” Words = 900 By Thomas Hobbs.