In his sophomore release The Waves, Mick Jenkins showed an insane amount of sonic evolution.
The Waters was a murky, minimal project production wise. While definitely a dope project, it didn’t allow for much exploration from Mick, tunneling his flow into a classic boom bap style. On The Waves, Mick rode over more vibrant and open production, which gave him room to play with flow and song structure. The variety he exhibited in that project was still digestible, but at the same time a lot more interesting. The way Mick incorporated his singing was also enjoyable and didn’t feel forced. The Waves as a whole felt like a natural progression.
With these two tracks “Grenade Theory” and “$3,000 Advice”, produced by THEMPeople and featuring theMind, (both of which have made appearances on his previous projects) Mick continues the vibrant and melodic style of The Waves while simultaneously building off it. Both tracks incorporate the smooth hooks found all over The Waves, with the gritty verses that swarmed The Waters. The balance makes for a dangerously good emcee, as often times Hip Hop’s heaviest spitters lack an ear for creating full projects and even songs. There’s something to also be said for the fact these two facets aren’t even on separate tracks on a single record, but molded together on each track. Both “Grenade Theory” and “$3,000 Advice” are perfect amalgamations of melody and rhymes. It helps that both THEMpeople and theMind seem to also see that vision and work towards it.
You can peep and download both tracks on Mick’s soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/mickjenkinsmusic/grenade-theory-feat-themind-prod-by-thempeople-1
art by your homie, Arthur Banach
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