The Healing Component

“The Healing Component” is the debut studio album by Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins, released on September 23, 2016, through Cinematic Music Group.

The story

The album followed Jenkins’s water-themed projects, the 2014 mixtape “The Water[s]” and the 2015 EP “Wave[s].” Where the EP came together in about two months, Jenkins spent close to two years developing this record. In interviews he framed love as a subject rap rarely examines in depth, and he set out to treat it broadly, as self-knowledge, growth and compassion rather than romance alone. Interludes built from conversations with his sister and from documentary audio about love present him as someone still searching rather than preaching. “Spread Love” and “Drowning,” the latter with BadBadNotGood, were issued as singles in August 2016.

Sound and production

Production came from a wide circle that included BadBadNotGood, Kaytranada, Sango, THEMpeople, Monte Booker, Cam O’bi, IAMNOBODI and others, giving the album a warm mix of jazz, soul and electronic textures under Jenkins’s deep, deliberate voice. Guests across its fifteen tracks include Noname, Ravyn Lenae, The Mind, J-Stock and Xavier Omar, several of them fellow members of Chicago’s young creative scene.

Legacy

The album reached No. 110 on the Billboard 200 and No. 9 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Reviews were generally favorable, with a Metacritic score of 79, and critics singled out its ambition and conceptual focus. It stands as a key document of the mid-2010s Chicago wave that also produced Noname, Saba and Chance the Rapper.

Released September 23, 2016. More from hip hop in 2016.