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Mick Jenkins raps about love in his debut album ‘Healing Component’

Entertainment
Photo courtesy of Cinematic Music Group

Mick Jenkins, 25-year-old Chicago rapper and poet, released his studio album debut “The Healing Component,” on Sept. 23.

Jenkins broke into the rap scene after releasing his mixtape, “The Waters,” in 2014, in which he displayed an almost impeccable and effortless flow over jazz-influenced beats and complex, meaningful lyricism.

Throughout his career, Jenkins themes his music around water, because he believes that, like water, his music is necessary to survive.

His message is clear in this new album. The album is called, “The Healing Component,” and Jenkins believes that the healing component is love.

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Jenkins tries to define love and the benefits of spreading that love throughout the world. Interestingly enough, “The Healing Component” is often referred to as THC, which is also the acronym for the main, active ingredient in marijuana, which could imply that Jenkins thinks the two have similarities.

“The Healing Component” displays Jenkins’ innate command over the microphone.

Jenkins has an indistinguishable voice that is deep, yet smooth that engulfs the listener. When he starts rapping, his vocal command demands adequate focus to understand not only what he is saying, but also the message he is trying to deliver.

Jenkins gives the listener a unique experience as he successfully describes how to be positive and loving, even though one might not be in an environment that supports that type of behavior.

Then, he takes lyrical jabs at the people who he thinks control society; about their incompetence for letting such environments exist in the first place, and their lack of effort to fix the problem.

He overcomes the challenge of having a positive attitude while addressing negative topics, such as, racial inequality, poverty, relationship troubles, and the power struggle.

A good example of this is on the second track “Spread Love.”

“I just let my little light shine. I guess that’s why they trying to throw shade at me, huh? Cause we all say ‘I Iove you’ and never show that s**t. That ain’t  OK with me, try to spread love on the daily, and the recoil like I got an AK with me.”

On the album, Jenkins’ passion and ability to be a diverse musician and songwriter are obvious, but there are a lot of points where the pre-hooks, bridges, verses and other musical components, become too much and either stop the momentum of the song, or prevent the song from gaining any momentum at all.

Overall, “The Healing Component” is a good album.

In the future, Jenkins should take a less-is-more approach and let all the talent he possesses do the work. He is only 25-years-old, and has consistently shown growth throughout his career.

He has all the tools to deliver a classic rap album and the best is yet to come from Jenkins.

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