Mick Jenkins, born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1991 and raised in Chicago, is a rapper at the heart of the city's conscious hip hop scene alongside Saba and Noname. The Water[s] (2014) is the conceptual breakthrough to start with; Pieces of a Man (2018) deepens the jazz-rap groove. Browse Mick Jenkins vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Jayson Jenkins, performing as Mick Jenkins, was born in Huntsville, Alabama on April 14, 1991 and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He launched his recording career on the Chicago underground hip hop scene in the early 2010s and signed with Cinematic Music Group. His 2014 mixtape The Water[s] became a critical breakthrough with its conceptual water-as-truth thematic approach. He has continued releasing material across multiple decades, with creative authority over his catalog. His work has been positioned within the contemporary conscious hip hop and alternative hip hop scene alongside contemporaries like Chance the Rapper, Saba, Noname, and Vic Mensa (all part of the broader Chicago underground hip hop scene).
Mick Jenkins's sound combines hip hop, conscious hip hop, alternative hip hop, jazz rap, neo-soul, and underground hip hop with his distinctive vocal delivery and lyrical content addressing Black American experience, identity, religion, and broader philosophical themes drawing on literary and political reference points.
Cinematic Music Group and Free Nation Records pressings of the Mick Jenkins catalog have been issued in color variant editions.
Listeners new to Mick Jenkins typically start with The Water[s] (2014) or Pieces of a Man (2018).
