Chicago spitter Mick Jenkins has been an elite talent since he showed up. That’s a serious achievement in one of the most spooky stacked talent pools in the world. The vision & work ethic of Andrew Barber is what propelled Lake Shore Drive to a success story worth studying, no question, but: he also lucked out, bigly, in terms of location.
From the start, young Mr. Jenkins was a man apart. It wasn’t just the raw talent, although of course this is the guy who burned up Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa in the same session. He had a maturity to his sound that was rare, anywhere. The Waters, especially in retrospect, was the sound of a fully formed threat. Critics who complained it was inconsistent just didn’t see the vision quite yet.
What I didn’t understand yet, at that point, was the origins of his sound. The beats were pure Chicago, obviously. The OnGaud collective has been furnishing bespoke heat forever, and their contributions, then and now, are always standout beats. But the fire in his belly and the music in his drawl spoke to something less cold. Sure enough, it turns out that Mick Jenkins was an Alabama boy before he moved to the windy city. It’s a whole different kind of church down there.
Jenkins has always distinguished himself as an artiste, exploring the horizon, bringing back carefully composed albums on his own damn time. His hustle is his process, and not all of that has to be public. Being “prolific” doesn’t count for shit when you’re churning out identical product, anyway. 2021’s Elephant in the Room was stripped down past the point of being downright claustrophobic, but then he came back two years later with The Patience, a flawless & polished collection of jazz-funk heat and blackout performances in the booth.
What’s next? He jumped in 2025 with a new EP, type shit, with five joints that were all originally uploaded to Youtube as a “Mick Jenkins type beat.” Four of them are produced by Docent, who can best be described as “some guy from Poland.” Congratulations on nailing the formula to an extent that few aspiring beatsmiths could even dream of!
As for this video, nah, it’s not even on that EP. Just a random loosie and a sunny day in a parking lot somewhere. When your product is this pure, that’s all it really takes. Four Dickies.
