Mick Jenkins's New Mixtape Is a Tense, Pointed Gift

Chicagoan rapper and hydration enthusiast Mick Jenkins released a new mixtape last night. or more; the anxious has Jenkins at his lyrical, deliberate best, crackling over unhurried beats from THEMpeople, Ahwlee, Origami Beats, Greenslime, and ENG Creation. He’s in more tense territory here than he was on last year’s The Healing Component LP, though. On opener “Happy Gilmore,” he says he’ll “look you in your face if I hit you / Give a fuck about your clique or who with you”; on the previously released “Vampire in Brooklyn,” he digs into politicians and arrogant kid via a Biggie reference. On “Energies,” alongside Saba, he finishes up with triumph over an oscillating, tipsy beat: “Now my little light is incandescent / Now a nigga skin is iridescent / You can't get this glow with acquiescing / I ain't been there since an adolescent / I been asking questions.”

“Or More is a project series involving musical ideas and concepts that are currently inspiring the album’s creation process,” Jenkins wrote of the project. “As creatives we live in a world of time constraints imposed by illusive industry standards, anxious demands of appreciators, or even our own self reflections. #OrMore is a smaller context of this larger pool of thoughts.. a world of exploration removed from the confines of a particular method. It’s my way of sharing the beauty in Indecisiveness. Sometimes we have to make music to locate the true music within our being. The first hones in on the ANXIOUS.”

Listen to the full tape below.

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