Steve 'Flash' Juon“The strip club don’t sell what I’m lookin fo’
The kind of love Tupac sang about, unconditional
So I take a moment to just be
Look myself in the mirror and learn how to love me”
That’s the type of shit Vic Mensa is on and always has been. His career sadly has been filled with irony. Despite being critically acclaimed for his thoughtful bars, working with some of rap’s biggest names like Jay-Z and Pusha T, and being an outspoken political activist who also does good work in his Chicago community (just look up SaveMoneySaveLife or Feed the Block, Warm the Block), he’s never had that breakout moment to be on that Kendrick Lamar level commercially. They’re making the same moves, I have the same positive outlook about both, and I feel like each one has matured and grown over the years. Mesa concurs. On “Victor” he’s continuously “LVLN UP.”
And if you had any doubt how deeply rooted in the Chi he is, Common is featured on “Southside Story” and Chance the Rapper (along with G-Eazy) is featured on “$WISH.” To be fair he’s also worked with Kanye West in the past, but I don’t even know if Yeezy thinks of himself as Chi at this point, in whatever goes on in that strange brain of is wherever he happens to be living now (preferably on Mars). Even though the aforementioned Wikipedia almost insultingly says he’s had “limited mainstream success” it’s not inaccurate to say all of his featured guests have hit it bigger — like Jay Electronica on “The Weeping Poets” for example.
I could find a hundred ways to tell you BongoByTheWay and the assorted cast of sidekicks did a good job producing this album — or just one. I listened to this album from start to end and didn’t feel the need to fast forward or skip around. I could find a dozen ways to tell you I respect Vic Mensa’s approach to the art of rapping. He makes it personal and relatable. He talks about his own demons and struggles, his own hopes and dreams, his triumphs and his tragedies. He tries to put down the bottle and pick up the Qu’ran. Maybe for you that’s the Bible. Maybe it’s neither of those things. What I’m saying is Vic is not just showboating wealth or shooting opps. He’s “Victor” Kwesi Mensah – a real guy in a world full of people who are not.