Vic Mensa

“I always try to take performances as an opportunity to implant my spirit into the hearts and minds of anyone in a hundred-yard vicinity.”

“My body is what? Like 99 percent water or something. But I drink all of my water out of, like, plastic containers. You know what I mean? What is plastic? My body is not one percent plastic, but the way that I ingest the water that runs through all of my veins is almost strictly out of plastic. There's something wrong with that.”

“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.”

“Thinking about the artists I've loved through the years, my favorites are the ones who've made music with cultural, societal and political significance.”

“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.”

“Skateboarding was my introduction to rap and the first rap song that I really liked was KRS-One 'Step Into A World.'”

“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.”

“So much of my life and my style and sensibility are influenced by skateboarding. It's counter-culture and skateboarding is my introduction to counter-culture.”

“You can go into a psychiatrist sometimes and just feel that this person's only role and their only desire is to write you a prescription, get a check and send you out the door.”

“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.”

“I'm from a family of educators. I grew up with books in my house and in my hands and my parents in my life.”

“Hip-hop has always been speaking about the way your brain is manipulated by stress and struggle because hip-hop is borne from struggle.”

“I've been harassed by police my whole life and seen people who looked like me treated like animals at the hands of law enforcement.”

“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.”

“But I love Chicago summers on Lake Michigan, Philly cheesesteaks on South Street, falling in love in Brooklyn, street fairs in Asheville, North Carolina.”

“I just stand by the things I believe in and if that upsets people, which it often does, then we got a situation on our hands. Everybody is okay and safe. I'm just blessed to be awake.”

“Prince is one of my biggest idols of all time, and he's the real King of Pop.”

“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'm from Chicago and that's where I created all of my most prized possesions, which are my songs.”

“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.”