As autumn creeps closer and daytime shrinks, it’s time to build up your store of moonlight music for the long nights ahead. That’s what Mick Jenkins is for. His new song “The Water,” a single from the upcoming mixtape The Water[s], is twilight rap for the darkest of dusks, with stern clouds of synth blocking the stars and a bleak tambourine tapping in the background like the dead tick of a clock. It’s beautiful production from High Klassified and Da P, both part of Montreal art-beat clique Alaiz. The former was recently signed by Fool’s Gold.
Mick himself is a sneakily vicious lyricist, hawking ether, rocking the boat, rolling truth. His rhymes are tightly focused and workmanlike, so much so that it can disguise their complexity. There are no gimmicks. Every third Tumblr rapper has a third eye—Jenkins has a hawk eye. He paints pictures, but they’re not Baroque. “Stephen Hawking, no need for talking.” In other words, you know he can write because he knows how to edit. Stream the song after the jump, plus two older singles from his April project Trees and Truth that are just as coldly perfect for sundown and beyond. They’d make good 12 O’Clock Tracks for the AM.
