Mick brings water to his thirsty listeners and can build a boat for them, too. Eliot’s invocation of this idea is more subtle: line 358 is simply, “Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop.” Eliot scholar Randy Malamud, in his introduction The Waste Land and Other Poems, explains what he finds to be the significance of these lines:

If water cannot be had, then at least a poet with his tools (sounds!) can deliver an avatar of water. Lurking here is the suggestion, which one might not have expected given the cynicism about the potential of art elsewhere in the poem, that poetry can, in fact, endure and provide (or point the way toward) salvation.

The second of verse of “Dehydration,” where the subject “ain’t drinking water”, is possibly the single verse most densely packed with violent images and vices on the mixtape. In “Canada Dry,” where Mick’s choice of drink is ginger ale, not water, topics range from lies to social injustices to materialism.

For example, the first verse of “Healer” describes a promising flourishing relationship – and it opens up with “my piss ain’t never been so clear.” Also, one of the most positive songs on the album, “Comfortable,” hinges around a line in the hook beckoning the listener to “get a sip of this water”.

The mere titles of songs like “Shipwrecked” and “Dehydration” suggest such destructive powers.

This theme is explicit: Mick describes water as “The Healing Component”, the “Healer” in the song of that title is water, and Mick warns that you might die if you don’t drink more water in “Jazz.”

Twice during the mixtape, Mick mourns the loss of his grandmother. Mick also comments that, “All the little n-ggas got guns now/ And they carry them to the f-cking beat,” and wonders what the difference between a killer and a victim even is anymore as they’re both so commonplace. On the other hand, Mick’s mixtape also sees souls saved.

Jenkins repeatedly cajoles the listener to drink more water. Of course, this implies that there is water available to drink.