Oct. 15--Rapper Vic Mensa described how his South Side upbringing helped him write raps that people could relate to and drew similarities to his mentor Kanye West in a Rolling Stone interview posted online Thursday.
"My parents are educators, but I (expletive) around in the streets. I grew up on the same streets that (West) rapped about, and he was fresh. I could just relate heavily. When I started writing my own raps, I started writing (expletive) that people could relate heavily to," said Mensa, who grew up in Hyde Park.
West's mother Donda was the chairwoman of the English department at Chicago State University. Mensa, who was a member of the Chicago group Kids These Days, collaborated with West on his "Wolves" track, which debuted in February, and on "U Mad," also released this year.
Mensa, 22, signed with Jay Z's label Roc Nation in April. His upcoming "Traffic" album has no official release date, Rolling Stone reports. In the interview, Mensa said his new music has "a little more energy and raw aggression" because he has been "dealing with (expletive)."
"The sun shines every day, and I remember that," Mensa said. "But (expletive) been having a hard time recently. I see it every day on the news (and) with just close people to me. The real world is catching up to them and making them into what they don't want to be. I feel like very much a product of Chicago's streets, so I gotta feel both sides of that. I gotta feel the beauty of the lakefront on a summertime day, and I also gotta feel the pain of my friend who got robbed at gunpoint last night. There's just a danger. I feel all those things."
Mensa also described his brushes with death including being electrocuted while trying to sneak into Lollapalooza in 2010 and an accident years later that left his mother's car totaled.
"Those are the reasons why I got 'Still Alive' tattooed on my stomach. I say that knowing it's not a coincidence that I'm still alive. I'm still alive to change the world and to do things that are significant. I don't know what they all may be, but I was put on this earth for a reason," Mensa said.
