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Chicago’s very own Mick Jenkins is the new voice hip-hop needs

There’s nothing worse than hearing someone say “there isn’t any good hip-hop anymore.” I mean, obviously, that isn’t true. The myth of hip-hop’s demise has since been disproven with too many noteworthy projects to name. Yet, still, to hear someone say it just irks me.

Even still, as I try and shiver past such crude comments, I can’t help but sympathize. It’s not that there’s not any good music, it’s just that there’s a lot of it.

Music is a lucrative industry right now and continues to be on the upswing. In the first half of 2018 total consumption in both streams and sales grew 18 percent, according to Nielsen’s mid-year report released earlier this year. But people aren’t just listening to music, they’re making it more of it too.

Because there is no middleman to the people or barriers of entry, the trajectory of an artist, in today’s era, lies in the will of the artist.

Becoming a hip-hop musician is more of understanding what sound you want, then learning how to operate the software to make it. Now, anyone with access to technology has the ability to express themselves musically. Where in the past, hip-hop composition used to be made up of percussion, strings and bass guitars, today has been replaced with, iPad plug-ins, MPC loops, and auto-tune.

Ala your Uzi’s and Rich the Kids’, Famous Dex’s, Trippie Redd’s and the plethora of other artists that all seem to keep crawling out of the same hole.vI can see how one could grow weary of the hodgepodge of synths and shrieks and mistake it for the staple of the industry.

But Mick Jenkins is right in front of you. The 27-year-old Chicago rapper who just released his sophomore studio album Pieces of a Man on Oct 26th is giving you everything you’d want in a rap artist today.

Mick Jenkins’s Pieces of a Man is grown, yet relatable, subtle, yet exciting, and holds tremendous playback ability. If The Migos, Cardi B, and Lil Yachty are a vodka Red Bull, Mick Jenkins is a whiskey clean. If mumble rap is mainstream, Mick Jenkins is the direct antithesis: articulation.

Take track 12 on the album, “Plain Clothes,” for example. Jenkins takes his foot off the lyrical exercises and smooths it down with soft guitar licks and croons melodies, but not playing himself either, though. Or “Grace & Mercy” —  a high-energy track that can easily make a club bang.

Maybe when it comes to finding good music is the effort to find it or the chance to give what everyone isn’t into a chance. Either way, with Mick Jenkins it’s simple: rap at it’s best.

Everything isn’t for everyone, every artist isn’t for every mood, which is which you need Mick Jenkins in the library balance the SoundCloud rappers and rainbow-colored youngsters.

Whenever someone says “good rap” is still out there, they’re also referring to Mick Jenkins. And Pieces of a Man is further proof as to why that’s the case.

Stream his new album Pieces of a Man here: