The Ones: Mick Jenkins’ “The Fit”
With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear curated by the Levels team. We sort through all the new songs—across all the platforms and subgenres—so you don’t have to. Thank us later.
Mick Jenkins - “The Fit”
The new Mick Jenkins EP, The Circus, reaffirms the well worn idea that a life inside or adjacent to the pop culture ecosystem is akin to one under the big top. Jenkins is a thoughtful rapper who performs best when he has a specific lyrical concept, and he uses this one to work through thoughts about the commodification of personality and the hoops people jump through to impress others. Though he hits the theme hardest elsewhere on the EP, the best song on The Circus is “The Fit.” The saying goes, “clothes don’t make the man,” and Jenkins reinforces that belief for a generation of hypebeasts: “What you stand on in them Nikes? I’m just checkin’,” he raps. His verse is fluid, his voice shifting in and out of singsong. He is clear, confident, and polished making a case against playing a character to stay trendy, his sonorous voice pushing past the beat’s pulsating, aqueous tones that sound like they’re being pumped in from underwater speakers. As Mick Jenkins reprimands copycats, fakes, and attention-seekers on “The Fit,” he continues to display a style all his own.
Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from Mick Jenkins and more on our Spotify playlist, Apple Music playlist, and SoundCloud playlist.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
