That's something I can never lose: my love for the art of rap. As I grew older and became more interested in song writing, it just pushed my possibilities further. I always have to have a foot firmly on the floor as a rapper, because that's how I started.
— Vic Mensa
Skateboarding was my introduction to rap and the first rap song that I really liked was KRS-One 'Step Into A World.'
I'm from Chicago and that's where I created all of my most prized possesions, which are my songs.
I don't love America; I love people and places in America. How could I truly love an entity that views me as subhuman, that wrote in its constitution for me to be considered three-fifths of a person?
Every time Emma Gonzalez speaks, I listen.
I like the story about Bon Iver. They said he kept his GRAMMY in, like, the basement bathroom so he could just focus on getting another one. If I won a GRAMMY, I'd probably keep it at my mom's house on 47th Street.
Chicago is complicated and complex and very violent but also very rich with history and tradition and art and culture - it's all these things.
I was born in America. I don't agree with 99.9 percent of the things America does around the world or at home, but I have no other home.
I'm not motivated by money or fame. I'm more driven by the electricity of creativity. The idea of being one of the legends that inspired me, being like Tupac.
I think when your intent and your energy is authentic and it's real and it's of the moment and it's necessary, it will reach the people it needs to reach.
Service is key. And as I have more on my plate, and I have more ambitions and more goals and things I want for myself, I'm realizing more and more how important it is to be a servant.
So whether that's taking a bunch of people from Chicago down to Standing Rock or being in Flint, Michigan, or being in Palestine or Baton Rouge after Alton Sterling's killing, I've been trying to, just as a man, be present and stand with the struggling and oppressed people around the world.
No I.D. is like an alchemist and he'll only give you so much at one time. It's for the best at the end of the day, cause through the process of working with No I.D. I was able to soak up his perspective for songwriting and production and keeping music alive.
It's anxiety that led to a depression that I've been dealing with since I was 16, 17. That was the first time I was ever prescribed medication for either of those disorders I guess you would call it.
I just like Kodak Black. I feel like he's pretty self-aware, even if I don't agree with all the things he says.
I'm inspired by Prince on every level; the whole androgynous thing, the ambiguity in his gender and his foundation - it's amazing. That's the way I think about clothes, in relation to my personality and my life. It's just an extension of who I am, like a song.
I can remember being a young kid, twelve, thirteen years old just with my headphones on, on the train, listening to rappers paint these vivid pictures. Listening to Mobb Deep and feeling like I was in Queensbridge even though I'm on the Southside of Chicago.
Nirvana is my favourite band.
I fell off a bridge when I was, like, 17 years old and got electrocuted by 15,000 volts of electricity - fell 30 feet.
I love putting in work for the city that raised me with my foundation SaveMoneySaveLife, and putting resources into the streets of Chicago.
To be an American is to be indoctrinated with racism, violence, capitalism and manifest destiny, the principles upon which the land of the free was founded.
Wings' was my moment to free myself from everything that was destroying me.
I'm really into vintage clothes. So I've been... vintage shopping and kind of adding and reconstructing things and just doing a little bit of designing.
My purpose is to unite people, to bring us together. And above all, to be a champion for justice and a vehement opponent of oppression and justice.
I think that everybody has their own interpretations of what it means to be American. But from my vantage point, being black and successful in the Unites States of America is the epitome of being American.
I'd been doing my own thing, and making my own money; I wasn't built by a record label or the music industry, nor was I built by prominent artists that have given me co-signs.
The things I have to say on and off the record are important, and I say them because I want to be heard.
My brain's always working, and gears are turning 24/7. So I was trying to think of solutions.
By nature I can be a confrontational person. I don't feel like there's anything wrong with that.
Traffic' was an album that had a significant amount of songs. It was not complete and I felt didn't fully represent me as a person or as the artist I want to be and so when I started the writing process for 'The Autobiography' I was really turning a corner in my life.
You know, I think the idea of activism, more so a revolutionary mindset, is something that has been with me for most of my life, especially since I was about 16 years old.
I just love The Cure. I think that their songwriting is so next level, and I really like the juxtaposition between this bad boy attitude and a softer, more emotional idea.
Prince is one of my biggest idols of all time, and he's the real King of Pop.
I wanted to go to a place with my first album that was just to the root, to the heart of emotion, and just unbridled by anything that wasn't truly in my heart.
I'm never satisfied with anything. It can make things hard for myself, but it also pushes me.
LA is the only place where people know my name and still walk up to me and ask it. And I think that was really representative of a lot of the transplant people in LA. I just found everything so phoney.
But I love Chicago summers on Lake Michigan, Philly cheesesteaks on South Street, falling in love in Brooklyn, street fairs in Asheville, North Carolina.
Everyone's life is for sale in America.
I'd be on stage in Ireland performing for thousands of people and just not believing in what I'm doing at all. And it hurt, it hurt badly. I knew every day that I couldn't continue this way.
You can live an entire lifetime in Chicago and not hear a gunshot, but if you go in a certain neighborhood then you can live your whole lifetime hearing gunshots all the time.
I have a responsibility to my fellow my community, to my fellow man, and woman. With that said, I create from a place of selfishness, but I'm also cognizant of potential impact on others. And I try to make that impact positive.
You can't even tell, but a lot of the time your favourite rappers are wearing a bunch of fake jewellery.
I don't want only young black people that listen to my music be able to appreciate it. I just want people to be able to appreciate it.
Human beings desire comfort and familiarity.
I just thought I could broaden my impact and my reach by starting a non-profit and putting investment into our community.
I started taking my mental health seriously, really working with a therapist and a psychiatrist.
Emotion is a broad spectrum and I just been to a lot of sides of my own emotions.
I had white family members, black family members, white friends, black friends by the time I was 16.
I don't see why clothes have to be women's or men's. It seems pretty limiting. I buy women's pants, women's shoes - everything, really.
No I.D. helped me to just identify certain energies that I might not have really represented yet in the music that he picked up on just in my personality, or in the person he perceived me to be.
