Who is Vic Mensa? Victor Mensah aka Vic Mensa is a Rapper and Producer haling from Chicago, Currently signed to Jay Z's Roc Nation label and a member of a disbanded group called Kids These Days. Following the band's split he released his first solo debut mixtape INNANETAPE and also a founder of the hip hop collective Save Money which include fellow Chicago rapper and frequent collaborator Chance The Rapper. I was first introduce to Vic through Chance's mixtape Acid Rap and I liked his style and wanted to hear more from him, later in the year he dropped his first solo mixtape and had really good tracks on there like "Orange Soda" and "Tweakin". Fun fact the tape was inspired from him tweakin with his friends at a homegirls house and the title of the project combined the word internet and mixtape. After the released of his mixtape he toured with the likes of J Cole, Wale and Danny Brown and was named along with many other artist was chosen to be on the cover XXL Magazine for the freshman class of 2014. In 2015 he got a majored co sign with Kanye and was on the Track "Wolves" and released a single for his upcoming debut album titled "Traffic" with Kanye titled "U Mad". He has released other tracks/singles hyping hos debit album but recently he decided to release a prelude EP/Mixtape which will lead to debut which should be released later this year. So does this EP give me hyped up for his debut? lets find out.
This being an EP its gonna be very short and simple to the point, there's only one feature from Ty Dolla Sign on track 5 "Liquor Locker" which is one of the least favorite track on the EP mainly cause I'm into the whole autotune crooning all over track, production sounds weak, Generic lyrics, its sound like an actual Ty Dolla song, if you took out Vic and just kept Dolla Sign on here the song would've been decent at best, That's probably the only negative of the project. Now on "There's Alot Going On" Vic spits many current events going on the world like the Flint Michigan Water Crisis, the shooting of Laquan McDonald and many self inflicted wounds and Mesna also raps his drug addiction and suicidal thoughts. The opening track "Dynasty" is a very solid opener were Vic talks about God, struggles with fame, and many things he sees in his daily life like cop killings and finding a new love and that he can rise despite the chaos around him. He drops very clever bars on this track like the Steve Nash line and references Hermione from the Harry Potter movies.
"16 Shots" is my favorite track and personal highlight of mine where he talks about Laquan McDonald and if you don't know who Laquan is, Mr. McDonald was a 17 year old hailing from Chicago who was stopped by the police and was shot 16 times by the Chicago police, according to the reports Laquan was in possession of a knife walks away diagonally across the street and away from the police, seconds later the officers start firing and McDonald falls straight to the ground, the officer who was no longer in view continues shooting 16 times and after the shooting the cops walks over to Laquan, stands over his body and shouts something and kicks the knife and walks away. This song is very powerful and through out the hook Vic is shouting 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 fuck 12 which is slang for fuck the police and gives a shoutout to fellow upcoming rapper Bobby Shmurda whos facing serious time and keeps getting denied. One line that stands out to me where Vic spits "Fuck a black cop, that's the same fight, you got a badge bitch but still ain't white" Alot of black officers are consider "Traitors" of their own race. Ending line where Vic said to the officer who Laquan basically "Tell him i don't bring a knife to a gunfight". Overall very powerful track.
Track 3 "Danger" is a solid track as well, where Vic spits having dangerous personality and living in Chicago which is consider a very rough city to live in. I really the production from Papi Beatz who produced majority of this EP. overall no complaints. "New Bae" is alright for a love song, where talks he wants to find a new love in his life and treat her right which is totally left field on here, when i first this i thought this was The Dream on the hook and first verse, the auto tune here doesn't brother me on here like on Liquor Locker. "Shades of Blue" whole theme is about the Flint Water Crisis and dour reflection on racial equality. He drops a very bars like the social media rather talk about on the whole damn daniel meme than the water crisis for white media coverage and everyone wants to be american idols and his only x factor is to be the voice of the people, very clever bars of those shows ha. And Finally the title track is a solid closer where vic spits one entire verse for five minutes about his personal demons and struggles with fame. He talks about his past and rise in the music industry, cheating on his girlfriend, meeting kanye and jay z, signing with Roc Nation instead of GOOD Music and many more topics. The video to this is very creative as well check it out if you get a chance.
My final thoughts on this "There's Alot Going On" is I was honestly surprised how good this EP was and very hyped to hear what Traffic is gonna sound like. if continues with these themes, I think the album might be very solid which should be released maybe later this year hopefully. Thank You Vic for the solid EP and will see where continues from here. Mexican Mamba Out.
Favorite Tracks: Dynasty, 16 Shots, Shades of Blue, There's Alot Going On
Least Favorite Tracks: Liquor Locker ft Ty Dolla Sign
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