35. Mick Jenkins - “Strange Love”

Mick Jenkins is one of the most underrated contemporary wordsmiths within the genre. If the majority of modern Hip-Hop exists within the topsoil, then Mick exists way down in the bedrock. His lyrics have a depth to them. They’re always reaching for some deeper and more meaningful theme. In short – they’re earnest. They have a goal that goes beyond fame, riches, or influence. They want to promote change, to uncover reality and convict listeners to do something, or at the very least recognize something that may have previously remained hidden to them.

He’s an artist, not an entertainer, and yet he has a voice like butter and a flow that seems effortless, almost as if he naturally speaks in perfectly paced and meted out bars of poetry. He’s the whole package, like a reincarnated forefather of Hip-Hop returning to save the genre and infuse it with the spirit that once made it so powerful and dynamic.

This track specifically serves as an olive branch, or as a call to arms directed towards all POC to unite and recognize their inherent power. Mick sees through all the terrible lies and obfuscating subterfuge of the dominant culture. He recognizes how the invisible strings of oppression want to tie down and pin POC against one another. How they want to deprive and incite to ensure stagnation and destruction. He sees it all clear as day, and he wants to reveal it to those who don’t, those who are still caught within its grasp and stumbling around within the fog deception.