While you can find various "Type Kits" on r/Drumkits or /r/makinghiphop, the best kit is the one you craft yourself. Here is a step-by-step guide to sampling your way to the Mick Jenkins sound without using pre-made loops.
Step 1: Find Obscure Jazz Records Go to YouTube. Search for "70s spiritual jazz [drums only]." Look for drum breaks by Idris Muhammad or Billy Cobham.
Step 2: Layer a Sub Kick Underneath Take that vintage jazz kick and layer a pure sine wave 808 underneath it. Here’s the trick: turn the 808 volume down to 20%. You shouldn't hear it; you should feel it. mick jenkins drum kit
Step 3: Destroy the Hi-Hats Take a standard Roland TR-909 closed hat. Run it through iZotope Vinyl (free) or RC-20. Turn the "Wear" knob to 60% and the "Dust" to 40%. Render it to audio and then reverse the last eighth note of every bar.
Step 4: The "Water" Reverb Mick Jenkins is "The Water." For your snare return bus, use a convolution reverb impulse response of a bathroom or a concrete tunnel. Short decay (0.8s), high damping. This creates the "submerged" quality common to The Water[s]. While you can find various "Type Kits" on
Step 5: Layering Foley Sounds Add the sound of a wooden stick hitting a cardboard box. Or a keychain jingling. Pitch it down -5 semitones. Use these as ghost notes between the snares.
A Review of the Album’s Drum Production & Sonic Identity Step 2: Layer a Sub Kick Underneath Take
While Mick Jenkins doesn’t have a project named Drum Kit, his most drum-centric and sonically cohesive work is The Healing Component (often abbreviated THC). If you’re searching for “Mick Jenkins drum kit,” you’re likely looking for the drum sounds, patterns, and production style that define his music. This review focuses on how drums function across THC.
The hallmark of a Mick Jenkins track (think Jazz, Martyrs, or P's and Q's) is a snare that sounds like it was recorded in a wooden room onto cassette tape and then thrown into a pool.