Mick Jenkins Drops First New Single Since 2018's 'Pieces of a Man,' "Percy"

This past March, Mick Jenkins revisited his sophomore album, Pieces of a Man, for a visual in support of “Consensual Seduction.” Now, the Chicago lyricist is back with a brand new track, “Percy.” Notably, this latest single features Qari and a beat cooked up by producer — and Mick Jenkins’ DJ — greenSLLIME, while its visual component was put together by Mick Jenkins himself, making the “Percy” clip his directorial debut.

“They talk beef, we seek choice pork cuts / I’m screaming f*ck 12, need white blood cells / I’m too sick with the pen like dumbbell / I move heavyweight,” Mick Jenkins spits on “Percy.” “Smoking out the P with my mans in his Chevy waiting on our cue to go / Weed residue all on my cuticles, I been grinding / Paper cuts all on my fingertips, been taking my time / Counting the digits, the relationship is strictly platonic though / Couldn’t love the money if a young n***a wanted to / Gotta love the struggle, it’s the hustle I’m drawn into.”

“I think that my sanity is the most important thing to my art, and I feel that my relationships are the most important thing to my sanity. My relationship with God, my relationship with my girlfriend, my relationships with the people that are close to me,” Mick Jenkins shared with KEXP earlier this year. “The people that keep me grounded. And if you focus on all of the many things that you could be focused on to advance your career, while you could be ‘successful,’ I’ve watched people close to me suffer before I was successful, because of that, and that was something I was not going to do … it’s hard work. Because it’s such a self-centered thing, it’s easier to do the other shit, honestly … even though that shit’s hard too. But making sure that you foster, and cater to, and water those relationships, and keep them strong. I think that people are only able to keep you in check if they’re at a certain level with you. If that level starts to fade, then their ability to do that becomes less strong, and I need people to do that for me … you gotta water that, it’s a plant. You gotta keep it growing.”

You can check out Mick Jenkins and Qari’s new, greenSLLIME-produced record “Percy” above.

Back in April, Mick Jenkins contributed to Pivot Gang’s You Can’t Sit With Us project, appearing on album cut “No Vest.”