Mick Jenkins

Chicago-based MC and poet Mick Jenkins has earned acclaim for his socially conscious and intellectually sharp rhymes, delivered with a forceful but relaxed style, while incorporating elements of jazz, soul, and hip-hop. Several mixtapes in the early 2010s first drew notice, after which his profile rose sharply with the 2014 release The Water[s]. On later projects such as Wave[s] from 2015 and his official debut album The Healing Component in 2016, he examined ideas of truth and love alongside Noname, Kaytranada, and BadBadNotGood. Maintaining steady output, he followed with EPs and albums including Pieces of a Man in 2018 and The Patience in 2023.

Born Jayson Jenkins in Huntsville, Alabama in 1991, he grew up on Chicago’s South Side. As a member of the hip-hop crew Free Nation, he began issuing online mixtapes in 2012, opening with The Mickstape in January and continuing that August with The Pursuit of HappyNess: The Story of Mickalascage. His April 2013 mixtape Trees & Truths, a 17-track effort rich in biblical references that showcased marked development in his lyricism, elevated his standing among Chicago rappers; later that year he joined Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa for the single “Cross Roads.”

The Water[s], his 2014 mixtape featuring Statik Selektah and Joey Bada$$, brought national exposure and led to a support role on a fall 2014 tour alongside Method Man, Redman, and Cypress Hill’s B Real, plus additional 2015 dates with Kirk Knight, Joey Bada$$, and STWO. After signing with Cinematic Music Group in 2015, he issued the EP Wave[s] in August while finishing The Healing Component, which arrived late the following year and entered the R&B/hip-hop chart at number nine. Further EPs followed with Or More; The Anxious in 2017 and Or More; The Frustration in 2018.

His second full-length, Pieces of a Man, appeared in 2018 and included contributions from Ghostface Killah, Corinne Bailey Rae, BadBadNotGood, and additional guests. Jenkins has also appeared on recordings by Robert Glasper, Kaytranada, and Disclosure. The 2020 EP The Circus featured EarthGang on “The Light,” while his third album, The Elephant in the Room, arrived in 2021 with serpentwithfeet on two tracks. Further guest spots came on songs by Isaac Zale, Selah Sue, Big Gigantic, and others. In 2023 “Smoke Break-Dance,” featuring JID, served as the lead single from his fourth album The Patience; a 2024 deluxe edition added two new songs and instrumental versions of every track.