Will Hagle never trusted Arrowhead Water.
The haves invented the gold standard. The have-nots resort to alchemy. Mick Jenkins remains the consistent voice of reason, knowing that water is the most vital chemical.
“Alchemy” is the first single off Jenkins’ Wave[s] EP, the follow-up to last year’s The Water[s]. His next album? It’s tentatively titled The Healing Component. It seems like Jenkins doesn’t plan on straying far from his mission statement: Water is more important than gold. You should drink more of it.
https://soundcloud.com/mickjenkinsmusic/alchemy-prod-by-lee-bannon
But, as Jay Z will remind you, even water can be bottled and sold. The Water[s] was a free download, but it was quickly understood to be Jenkins’ most commercially viable product. The production on “Alchemy,” made by Lee Bannon & ThemPeople, only pushes him further in the direction of radio impurity. The beat is bigger, cloudier, trap-ier than the beats he’s accustomed to rapping over. He still harpoons it, of course, but you can hear the sound shifting outside his comfort zone.
Beats like this are catalytic. Gold might not be important to him, but this concoction could be what gets him there.
