Mick Jenkins
The Healing Component
Release Date: Sep 23, 2016
Genre(s): Rap
Record label: Cinematic
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Album Review: The Healing Component by Mick Jenkins
Great, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Chicago has been known to produce greatness, and this year was no exception — Kanye West, Chance The Rapper and rising talent Mick Jenkins continue to be essential voices in hip-hop's growing conversation. Both Chance and Yeezy preached their way through gospel-influenced albums; Mick Jenkins soothes his listeners with jazz and soul on The Healing Component. "Drowning" featuring BADBADNOTGOOD and "This Type of Love" are notable songs off the 15-track album, as is "Daniel's Bloom.
Based on rating B+
Mick Jenkins works well with seemingly simple directives, things that should garner a “no duh” and instead sound revelatory in his voice. The first such mantra that struck a major chord was good advice: “Drink more water.” And while it likely kept more kids in his home of Chicago and the rest of the world better hydrated, there were layers of metaphor and message, “water” far deeper than it might initially seem. Projects like The Water[s] and Wave[s] allowed for both simple pleasure and thoughtful analysis — like, for instance, an essay on Genius comparing Water[s] to T.S.
Based on rating 7.6/10
Love has been the benzine in pop music’s tank since time immemorial. That’s because trying to pin down its meaning is like trying to crescent kick a waterfall—it is constantly being filtered and refiltered through a pop culture prism. Everyone from Walt Disney, to Ian Curtis, to André 3000 had their own takes. Yet here we are, in 2016, and Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins has released a concept album about love that finds fresh angles.
Based on rating 3.8/5
Chicago has been on a Hip Hop winning streak in 2016. City patriarch Kanye West released his ever-changing opus The Life of Pablo in February, and roughly three months later the city’s savior Chance The Rapper released his latest mixtape, Coloring Book. Much like Chicago’s troubling sociopolitical issues, the struggle between the braggadocio and spiritual tendencies of the two artists was put on display.
Based on rating 6.5/10
Love makes the world go round, builds it up, and tears it apart. It exercises absolute control over our lives while empowering us to mend and make use of it. But will we ever truly understand this crazy thing? Mick Jenkins tries on his debut album The Healing Component, which is a meditation about love. The gospel of Mick Jenkins is comprised of elements he has unveiled throughout his body of work.
Opinion: Excellent
by Mick Jacobs For a conclusion to be made, experiments must be held. Failures often follow. But as Edison’s failures illuminated 10,000 ways how “not to make a lightbulb,” with The Healing Component Mick Jenkins details 10,000 ways to heal. The Chicago native’s full-length debut serves as his laboratory, where he dissects the subjects of religion, Chicago, and love.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Mick Jenkins lays out the ideal of Christian love as the overarching theme of his debut album. Romantic love and, lately, self-love are pervasive themes in pop music, but on the song Spread Love, the Chicago MC goes a step further to insist that the "basics" of it not only involve loving oneself but unconditionally "projecting that love onto others." Throughout The Healing Component, the rapper dismisses materialism and haterism in poetic verses that mix singsongy cadences with tough, staccato flows. Evoking the classroom conversations about love from The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, he intersperses philosophical conversations about the nature of love and faith.
'The Healing Component'
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