365 – New Music Daily

It has been a long time since a rap album was on here! I think. I’m too lazy to look.

Mick Jenkins was a subject of many a debate between me and my friend Jonah. It was “Is Mick Jenkins good” in rotation with Big Sean vs. Joey Badass.

Mick Jenkins, for background is an underground rapper from Chicago who broke into the underground mainstream (did someone say oxymoron? this is a real thing, though) with his 2014 album “The Waters” which has great laid back rap songs such as Vibe and Healer, as well as some more harder songs such as Jazz and Martyrs.

All great songs, and all, regardless of the track’s vibe, were presented through his smooth, bass-heavy delivery that was really fucking good.

On his new project, The Patience, Mick comes through with a much more aggressive delivery, a complete 180 from the songs above and most of his other previous work as well, aside from maybe songs like Ps and Qs. A few of the songs do feature this classic delivery, such as the one below, but most are higher pitch, much more aggressive and embodied flows than most of his work.

Are they bad? No. Are they for me? No as well. There probably was a time, actually there definitely was a time, where I would have adored every song on this project. This might be a product of not really listening to much rap anymore, but I found this to be very hit or miss, with the classic Mick songs really being the best of the bunch, and the others being kinda meh. The instrumentals are also a bit all over the place. All in all, not bad, but not as good as old Mick.

Favorite songs: Sitting Ducks, Smoke Break-Dance, ROY G BIV