SOUTHSIDE SOLDIER

SINCE HIS EARLY DAYS AS A MEMBER OF CHICAGO COLLECTIVE, KIDS THESE DAYS, VIC MENSA’S BEEN VOCAL ABOUT THE ISSUES THAT MATTER. HEAR HOW HE MERGES HIS MUSIC WITH A STRONG POLITICAL MESSAGE, AND STAYS STYLISH AT THE SAME TIME.

Words Eviethecool Director/Stylist Evanescia Thompson Photographer Diana Pietryzk Ghana Moon Photo Michael Benrens Chicago Protest Photo Dennis Eliott Blazing Fire Photo Wes Hicks

Clothing Daily Paper Jewelry Torres Omar Jewelers Studio Enez Beauty

You were recently in Ghana, what impact did the trip have on you mentally and spiritually?

I felt a sense of peace being in Ghana; a peace that is hard to achieve in America. We live in such constant turmoil and everything is so urgent, so busy and stressful, you know? So spiritually it helped me slow down a little bit, calm down a little bit. I’m naturally high strung so obviously I brought myself with me to Africa but while I was there I felt a different level of calm and joy. I felt happier than I’d felt in years.

What is it about Ghana that brings out this joy and happiness?

Being in Ghana particularly for me is inspiring of joy Being in Ghana, particularly for me, is inspiring of joy because it is very directly my homeland, and there’s a certain power in that. I didn’t grow up with people of my san, of my culture. The culture I grew up in, the culture I came to identify with, it is different from the culture of my people. My dad is from Ghana, my mom is from upstate New York. I am from the Southside of Chicago, so a completely different fucking thing. I didn’t grow up with Ghanians, I didn’t grow up speaking the language or anything like that. So first of all, going out there gives me the opportunity to connect with my ancestry, you know, with my heritage. Also it was just a moment outside of the fucking rat race: it’s easy to lose perspectives and forget that there’s anything other than chaos when you’re in Chicago, or in America, just bouncing around on a flight everyday, on a million phone calls. It’s just a different speed over there, people are not as bothered about everything.

How do you feel when you are wearing traditional clothing from your Motherland?

I FELT FLEE. I felt flee as hell, you know. I brought some different things back with me like some Kentes and a Muslim guard called a Jalope. I brought a few things back with me and I am going to start incorporating them into my daily regiment, wearing shit around the house.

“My dad is from Ghana, my mom is from upstate New York. I am from the Southside of Chicago, so a completely different fucking thing.”

What’s coming up next for Vic Mensa?

Right now I’m releasing a project called ‘The I-Tapes’, it’s part of a series. I put out ‘V-Tape’ last year. I’m working on some acting projects, some television shit, excited about that. I am writing a book and constantly working on music.

What are you writing a book about?

The book is like a collection of essays, a lot of it has to do with the space in-between the Black American experience and the African experience, how they are alike and how they are different.

What is a word that can describe your upcoming project?

FREEDOM, that’s the word.

Who’s an artist you’d like to collaborate with? Pick one man and one woman.

Andre 3000 and Brittany Howard from the Alabama Shakes.

Was it hard to express FREEDOM in your new project while not particular feeling FREE?

You know, I just work really hard. Like sometimes it’s easy but more often it’s difficult at this point of time. I just stick to it, I stay in the studio and I stay right, so I’d be lying if I said it was easy for me. Literally I go in and write for hours on end, weeks on end, months on end, to get to a place where I love what it is I am creating. So yeah it is definitely difficult to express those things, to express the things I’ve been writing about. In the moments when I actually did them it was easy, but the work that it takes me to get to a place where it just comes out of me, that’s the hard part.

Has the process of creating music been harder or easier due to the pandemic?

The pandemic gave me an opportunity to sit down and just focus on my pen and hyper focus on my writing and my bars. It definitely made collaboration different, it’s just few and far between, like I spend more time alone in the studio. Extremely alone. That can get kind of insulated but overall it did help me to regain focus.

Do you find it harder to work when you’re alone?

Solitude has always played a significant role in my process. When I was first writing raps in high school I was always alone in my mom’s basement. Then when I was in the band with Kids These Days or doing the ‘Innanetape’ stuff, when I was writing my verses for those, often times I might come up with the hook around other people, but when I was really dialling in, writing my

verses, more often than not it was just me in the trap.

While in the band Kids These Days, did you envision that you’d become as big if an artist that you are today?

Honestly, I had the vision before Kids These Days. KTD was a good growing process for me but I always saw things for myself before I was with KTD, bigger than KTD. It was a learning process and something that artistically I am grateful for.

“The pandemic gave me an opportunity to sit down and just focus on my pen and hyper focus on my writing and my bars.”

How were the Chicago Protests last year different from any protests you’ve supported in the past?

The pandemic was the perfect storm that gave everyone space and time to do nothing but focus on what was happening, what’s happening internally, what’s happening externally. So when we watched George Floyd get lynched and we learned of Breonna Taylor, it might have gotten lost in the sauce if it was not a global pandemic; but the fact that everyone had to be inside on a lockdown, it just let rage fester. So things went further last year than they had gone in any recent times, widespread real rebellion, destruction of property. It was different from 2016. We wanted to take it there in 2016 but the conditions didn’t exist in the same way. 2020 was flammable, highly flammable. At the end of the day some cities did have something to show for it but in Chicago our Mayor has shown extremely poor leadership and no regard for the will of the people. As opposed to defunding the police, as they’ve done in other places, and funding communities like in New York and Los Angeles, she’s actually given extra money to the police. She just gave 280 million out of the Covid-19 Relief to the police payroll. We got a fucking cop as a mayor, so nothing really changed.

What made you choose to advocate for Julius Jones?

A fan of mine DM’d me and told me about Julius Jones, he’s an inmate on death row in Oklahoma. She mentioned him to me because he had been signing his outgoing letters with my song, ‘We Could Be Free’. That really touched me, it made me want to try and do what I can to help him.

How did your past and current experiences play a part in your latest song, ‘Shelter’?

I originally wrote the song ‘Shelter’ four years ago, but I didn’t like my verse. The current state of the nation, what is going on in my city, and Julius Jones actually helped inspire my lyrics for ‘Shelter’.

What is your love life like currently?

I’ve been single for a long time, about three years or something, long for me because I always used to have a girlfriend. I’ve been talking to somebody out of the country that I like, I haven’t met anybody that I’m really feeling like that. But low-key I had decided this year, fuck it I’ll just go for it. I ain’t gotta be all “you the one” - just for me to try it.

Does it matter that she’s a fashionable woman?

It really does matter. I’ve tried to mess with nonfashionable women, it just doesn’t fucking work for me. What’s most important or most attractive to me is intellect, you know, I like smart women. But I’ve tried to finesse myself sometimes and try to just be like, “she doesn’t dress that good, she ain’t the baddest,” and it doesn’t work for me, I need it all. LOL.

When it comes to women do you have a favourite sign?

Yeah, I’m in love with Cancers. LOL, all of my girlfriends were Cancers.

Who is your favourite designer?

Pyer Moss is probably my favourite designer.

What are your favourite brands right now?

Some of my favourite brands right now are Daily Paper, Friends and there’s a brand I recently got introduce to called Who Decides War, that I really like.

Who is a fashion designer you would love to collaborate with?

Rick Owens.

Who are your favourite Chicago Designers?

Definitely, Joe Fresh Goods, Virgil. I like Ron Louis, he’s a guy from Chicago, he’s dope.

What is your favourite outfit?

I been messing with this brand in Ghana called Free The Youth, so I like to wear a Free The Youth T-Shirt, Rick Owens joggers and Pyer Moss sculpted shoes.