ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: ALBUM REVIEW
After a year and a half since the release of his project The Circus, Mick Jenkins presents a new entry into a very inconsistent body of work, displaying a new project with a strong beginning and end, but without any sense of identity or theme.
Elephant in the room is the rapper's 11th album, topping a career expanding near 10 years now, and despite Jenkins growing as an artist during that time, this album doesn’t reflect any of the bites that Jenkins has flaunted.
Elephant In The Room is a sobering reflection of where Mick stands not only in his professional career, but also in his personal life. Some songs demonstrate a current state of happiness and feeling of being unbothered and some iterate a harsh outlook on the social status of his community.
Mick Jenkins demonstrates this ability to create a duality of themes, tying two songs together introspectively as if they’re mirrors of one another.
“Things You Can Die For if Doing While Black” is harrowing. Describing the simple pleasures Mick wants out of this life but can’t properly enjoy due to his social conditions. Following suit is “Stiff Arm”, which continues this frustration with the racial relations around his world and ends with a poetic rant by Chicago activist Ayinde Cartman.
“Scottie Pippen” at first listen is this very haunting jazz creation with Mick singing the chorus, but it’s a retrospective about his relationship with his partner. Over a very moody jazz instrumental provided by Kiron Kai, Mick mentions personal anecdotes about his partner not being over her vices, them committing despite the “advice they heard”, and sacrificing for this newfound love. Then right after you have “Gucci Tried to Tell Me”, a much more upbeat and corny testament to his lover. “Lost in the sauce and that sauce is yours” is his worst chorus in a while, but it works.
For the duration of his career, Mick Jenkins has been the poster child of conscious rap over jazz rap beats, and he delivers that image, hardened, grown, and without the same thrill and energy. Though he delivers handfuls of wordplay, double entendres, and social commentary, he fails to deliver a strong concept from beginning to end, with most of the body of Elephant In The Room providing nothing particularly special or memorable.
Every beat on the album is cool, but nothing stands out like previous tracks on 2018’s Pieces of a Man. The production is consistent but is kinda lukewarm. Mick Manages to touch up on social topics while not providing any deeper commentary on the subject matter. There’s not a consistent concept to follow so each track feels strung along until you get to the final three.
On “Rug Burn”, Mick raps “Mick you be top five… n*gga I know” but doesn’t have much to back that up besides a dedicated fan base and an underrated album or two, but when compared to his contemporaries, his albums or singles can’t compete culturally or economically.
It always seems like Mick is producing content whether it be an ep, or mixtape in between albums, or a multitude of features with smaller artists, and it’s starting to reflect in the major bodies of work. From here forward, Mick Jenkins needs to actively take his time creating a project instead of constantly sending out anything he has.