Mick Jenkins Favorite Things

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If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hair spray and the electric toothbrush. We asked rapper Mick Jenkins — whose new album The Patience is available everywhere on August 18 — about his lighter collection, the white tees he wears on tour, and the video-game console he plays to kill time.

When you’re a touring artist and they want your rider, put T-shirts and underwear on there. If you’re doing a two-month tour, you’re going to end up buying a lot of that anyway, but if every show someone has gotten you a pack of underwear and shirts, you don’t have to worry about it. And by doing that, I got to try all of these different shirts, all over the country. Going through that process, I learned that Goodfellows are definitely the best white tees you’re going to get from a Target or Walmart. The collars are thick, but not too thick — sometimes convenience store white tees can end up choking you. It’s not a heavy shirt, but it’s not too light. I think with white T-shirts, if they’re too light, they can feel flimsy. Also, I’m tall, and I can get frustrated with shirts that, when you get to XL, they’re either not very large or they’re extremely long. Goodfellows is right in the middle. All you need is an iron, and it looks like a much better quality than just wearing it out of the packet. I think the only downside is it is very much a one-wear shirt: After you wash this shirt, it’s over.

I gravitated to film through shooting with Polaroids. I wanted to take things to the next level: knowing aperture and all of the things it takes to compose a decent photo. I started with a Mamiya, which is a medium-format camera. But those cameras are really bulky — they’re about eight pounds. I wanted a medium-format camera that wasn’t so heavy, that I could take everywhere, and I found this one. I take it to the studio, picnics, beach, linkups at friends’ houses. I don’t even do anything with my pictures; I just get them developed and toss them in a box. I guess one day I’ll look back and scrapbook them in an album, but right now I really just like taking photos.

I use a lot of Lomography film. Right now I have their LomoChrome film: It gives everything a really cool chrome-y filter. I’ve tried some that make everything with green or cellulose in it purple, films that make everything red. Most of the time, though, if I’m just shooting friends, I use any 120 [film] that I was able to get from a film store. But when I want to be intentional, I’ll buy something from Lomography because they always have different cool films to use.

I’ve been into thrifting since I was a kid — my grandmother thrifted, so I’ve always been around antiques and the idea of reselling. Lighters didn’t come to me until I was an avid smoker — which I am now. So I started collecting them from thrift shops, antique stores, estate sales. Some of the most interesting to me are table lighters, from the ’60s and ’70s, Art Deco style. These table lighters are like accent pieces in the home. I’m also interested in old war lighters, Zippos. I do prefer lighters with unconventional functions. I’ve got lighters that are sideways, see-through shit that’s circular. I’ve probably been collecting them for about five years now, and my wife gets ones like this for me on random anniversaries.

I don’t know what it is, I just always lose my AirPods. I’ve probably gone through around 10 or 12 packs in the last few years — it’s ridiculous. I used to just be like, “Whatever, I’ll buy some new ones,” but it’s gotten out of hand. There’s a gas station right by my house; I was in there, I saw some Xbuds, and I grabbed them for $25 — and they were great! They’re serviceable — obviously, the sound quality isn’t as great as Apple, but I don’t need it to be. Now … I’ve also lost my Xbuds, but it’s better because I can just replace them for $25. So shout-out to Xbuds; they’ve been holding it down. I’m on my third pair in like six months, so I’m still terrible, but at least I’m not getting my pockets hit the same way.

The Miyoo Mini is an emulator player — it’s not just a Game Boy, I can play any gaming system from the NES all the way up to the PlayStation One. (Anything after PlayStation One would be too new.) There are a lot of systems like this, a lot of people use a Steam Deck, but I wanted something smaller, something compact, and I wanted to play old games. It’s super-cheap brand new, and then you can put up to thousands of games on there. I grab a couple old Pokémon ROMs, play them until I beat them, then grab some new ones and keep playing. I don’t play it religiously; it’s mostly for when I’m traveling — if I’m at the airport, in line waiting for a bus, in an Uber for two hours, that’s usually when I pull this out. That’s why it’s always on me because I never know when I’ll need to kill five minutes.

I don’t really spend a lot of money on vanity items, as far as big-name brands. So, when I do, it’s something that I cherish and keep around. For example, I got myself a Cuban link-chain bracelet for my 25th birthday. In the rapper world, that’s nothing, but to me, that’s a lot. So I wear that shit all the time. And it’s the same thing here: I don’t even wear Gucci or buy bags for real. When I grabbed this joint, I was in there grabbing something for my wife, and was like, “Okay, I need something for my weed; this will work.” Now I keep everything in there, and it’s funny because … it’s not the best thing to carry my shit in at all! I get frustrated trying to put in my grinder and my weed and my lighter and everything I need because it’s small, and then I feel like what I tell my wife she looks like when she’s trying to fit all this stuff in a small-ass purse. So I laugh at myself, but I continue to do it because, well, “You spent $500 on this bag, bro … you better use it for what you got it for.” I’m committed now.

[Editor’s note: Jenkins’s bag has been replaced by a current-season version at Gucci, but you can buy it second-hand here.]

I usually wear these when I’m doing something active. I hike every weekend, we go to the beach all the time, we go to Big Bear, we go to Joshua Tree, and I’m always bringing the glasses with me because they capture images and video. I think that first-person perspective is cool, when you’re not holding the phone, but turning my head and playing with things like that. I was actually just talking to my manager about using the shades on tour and during shows. I think it would be really cool to catch that perspective if I jump out in the crowd. That’s what’s so endearing about them: I brought them to a Lakers game and hit crazy angles sitting courtside. I think we’ve seen this type of technology before, but not so streamlined, not so unnoticeable. It’s 30 seconds of video, so the clips are really short, but the quality is great. It is absolutely clear.

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