He may not be firing off new music like his peers, but that doesn’t mean Vic Mensa’s schedule isn’t stacked. The Chicago artist is fresh off helping organize the Black Star Line Festival in Ghana alongside Chance The Rapper. In an interview with Paper Magazine, Mensa detailed traveling to Ghana in January last year. When he reached out to friends about being in Africa, only Chance asked to come to visit. It was a spiritual experience that bonded the friends, sparking the idea to host a music festival overseas.
Additionally, activism is something that Mensa continues to be involved in, especially in the Windy City. His non-profit SaveMoneySaveLife has helped thousands of residents in need, and Mensa is active in the local music scene to support rising artists. Paper asked about Chi-Town’s Drill scene and Mensa’s tense reaction to DJ Akademiks during an interview in 2017.
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It was then Mensa was a guest on Everyday Struggle, a show co-hosted by Akademiks. The rapper took issue with how the blogger covered Chicago Drill artists, and Paper asked what it was like to see the genre accepted worldwide. “It’s really astounding, man. It’s beautiful. Ghanaian Drill is interesting too because it’s this ping-pong effect where Drill music from Chicago then inspired the UK, who transformed that sound plus Grime into a UK Drill scene; which then ping-ponged and inspired Pop Smoke and them to do the New York Drill scene, which then ping-ponged and inspired the Ghanaian kids to make Ghanaian Drill.”
Mensa explained that each scene is rooted in something different. In the U.S., Rap is heavily centered on experiences connected to violence. In Ghana, Mensa says the struggle isn’t the same. “The Drill movement was always conflicting for me,” he shares. “While I loved the artistic expression in the music, I also had a front-row seat to the real-life accompaniment to that music. Friends of mine were killed in the midst of Drill rap beef and all that sh*t. That was why I got into it with Akademiks.”
where was this energy here? pic.twitter.com/hTQCFZV9rE https://t.co/b0ofFbBFxB
— skya
(@andfuckvmin) February 23, 2022
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He continued, “Because a kid that I grew up with and went to karate with when we were five years old ended up being a street n***a, gang banging, et cetera. He was also a very talented rapper. When he got killed, there was music involved, there were big Drill artists involved, and I heard about it on Akademiks’ parasitic platform. So that’s why I was upset.”
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