Mick Jenkins, a Chicago born rapper like Kayne West and Chance the Rapper, entered the music scene on January 2012 when he released first mixtape called “Mickstape”. After a couple of mixtapes Jenkins then released his first album, “Healing Component,” which touched on some of the same topics from his mixtapes.
Now his latest release is “Pieces of Man” which pays homage to the artist Gill-Scott Heron, as its named after one of his albums. Does he succeed or did Mick Jenkins take a couple of steps back?
The album starts off a little slow with the tracks “Stress Fracture” and “Gwendolynn’s Apprehension.”
“Stress Fracture,” which features Mikahl Anthony, talks about how stressful love and fame can be. Anthony’s airy voice meshes together really well with song’s bassline and subtle piano playing in the background. Then Jenkins comes in and delivers a good verse, with his flow fitting the tempo of the track really well.
“Gwendolynn’s Apprehension” is based on the poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who wrote the poem “We Real Cool.” Mick Jenkins takes this and talks about today’s youth and how they always follow the masses and what it seems like is cool.
The beat on this track is really dope with its psychedelic feel to it and Jenkins delivering some dope lines like “All this shit connected no cursive / it’s more coercive than simple calligraphy”. He also delivers the clever line “Tryna write while they bite /I’m not Holyfield”. This track delivers a good message and hearing the prospective thoughts of Mick Jenkins is very insightful.
“Grace & Mercy” picks up the pace of the album with its piano trap beat. This song is very short, but Jenkins definitely delivers some quotable lines on this song. Like when he says, “This a Game of throne all I see is Cerseis” and “That’s a Ted talk, say less, let the bread talk.” “Grace and Mercy” brings some freshness to the album, and it's definitely one of the best tracks on it.
“Padded Locks,” which features Ghostface Killah, is a dope track as well, on which they both deliver some crazy bars. Mick Jenkins delivers bars like “I’m buckin’ wild like the AK cause it came from KAYTRA” and “N***** dirty dancing” / No Patrick Swayze.” Ghostface Killah then comes in with some clever lyrics such as “You’s as basic as a baby daddy in Maury” and “Off your whole set n****, you can ask Cardi.”
The last song on this album, “Smoking Song,” is a very good closer to this album. The jazzy background music and Mick Jenkins’ rapping mesh really well with this track. BadBadNotGood was also good on this track, providing the instrumentals for this track that went well the theme of smoking.
Overall this album is very good from its production to Mick Jenkins showing his versatile lyricism. The features on this album also deliver as well their vocals or just straight bars that they deliver. Mick Jenkins delivers a dope piece of work and the jazz production adds a nice touch to the album. He does a good job and definitely has a bright future in the rap game. 4.5/5
