On this episode of Mind Massage Vic Mensa returns for Round 2 of ASMR. He takes us on a sound journey using some of his favorite items such as, Ice, Boxing Gloves, a Tech Deck and more!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00 (air whooshing)
00:02 What up, I'm Vic Mensa.
00:10 Welcome to my mind massage.
00:15 (laughing)
00:16 I'm gonna take you through a sound experience
00:20 using some of my favorite things.
00:22 (plastic crinkling)
00:25 (plastic crinkling)
00:28 This is a Tektek.
00:33 It's a tiny skateboard.
00:35 I had a lot of them when I was a kid.
00:39 Some people can do real skateboard tricks with them.
00:42 I'm not one of those people.
00:46 (plastic crinkling)
00:55 Oh shit, I gotta put the grip tape on it, all type of.
00:59 (plastic crinkling)
01:02 God damn.
01:06 Let's (beep) go.
01:13 Can I curse in this interview?
01:15 Okay.
01:16 Thank you.
01:19 (laughing)
01:21 All right.
01:29 Growing up in Chicago is
01:39 one of the primary sources of inspiration
01:43 for the lyrics I write.
01:47 Being an extension of my humanity,
01:50 which was shaped by my experiences in Chicago.
01:56 Chicago is a very honest depiction of America.
02:01 And at once beautiful and inspired and historic
02:07 and at the same time,
02:11 destitute and hopeless and dangerous.
02:16 (lips smacking)
02:18 I was inspired to start rapping about Tupac and Comet.
02:22 Tupac made me feel something.
02:25 I wanted to make people feel
02:27 in a way that he made me feel.
02:28 Comet was rapping about the same bus I was riding
02:32 while I was listening to the music.
02:33 So he made me believe it could be real.
02:36 Ultimately I learned a lot from hip hop.
02:41 Around that age of 11, 12, 13 years old,
02:44 it gave me context into myself and into my environment.
02:48 I wanted to be a part of it.
02:52 I was actually writing graffiti before I was rapping.
02:57 So I was tagging trains and walls, spray painting,
03:02 painting on things illegally.
03:05 Then I was break dancing.
03:07 And then I was rapping after that.
03:11 (plastic crinkling)
03:14 (plastic crinkling)
03:30 (plastic crinkling)
04:00 I beat your ass.
04:01 I chose boxing gloves because it's been a fight for me.
04:09 I've had to stay afloat.
04:11 And boxing is like a metaphor for that to me.
04:15 In addition, I trained fighting.
04:17 I'm a trained martial artist.
04:18 I've been doing it my whole life.
04:20 I started boxing a few years back.
04:23 I see it as a metaphor for my journey.
04:27 It's like I've been hit, I've fallen, I've stumbled.
04:29 But I keep getting up and I keep fighting.
04:32 The things I hold conversation about in my personal life
04:37 are the things that I write about in music.
04:40 So if that is speaking truth to power
04:42 or addressing systemic oppression
04:45 or violence against women or police brutality
04:50 or whatever it may be,
04:52 I'm revolutionarily minded and I'm politically educated.
04:56 So those are the things that find their way into my music.
05:00 (plastic crinkling)
05:04 (plastic crinkling)
05:10 (plastic crinkling)
05:13 (plastic crinkling)
05:21 (plastic crinkling)
05:27 (sniffing)
05:38 (plastic crinkling)
05:41 (water running)
05:46 You like that?
05:51 (laughing)
05:54 It sounds so good when it fizzles.
06:02 (laughing)
06:06 Hell no, y'all crazy as hell for this shit.
06:10 (laughing)
06:12 Or Soda was one of the first songs that people heard from me
06:15 from the internet type,
06:17 a project I made about 10 years ago when I was 19.
06:21 In the years since, I've been on a journey.
06:27 I've grown, I've gained, I've lost, I've loved,
06:32 I've learned as we all have in the last 10 years.
06:36 That was a very natural time
06:38 when music was being made purely for fun.
06:41 There was no sense of commoditization.
06:44 It wasn't about streams.
06:46 I don't even know if streaming existed yet.
06:49 And it was innocent.
06:52 There was honestly an innocence to that music.
06:55 At the same time, it was deep though.
06:58 It was very personal.
06:59 It was very emotional.
07:01 It was lyrical.
07:02 It was fun.
07:03 It was hip hop.
07:05 All at once, I was really inspired by Pharrell on that song.
07:10 I'm always inspired by Pharrell,
07:12 but that song in particular,
07:14 I was going for a N.E.R.D. Pharrell type of hook.
07:19 Cam made the beat and Chance was actually doing the ad libs
07:24 like, "Yo, they."
07:26 It was like yelping in the background.
07:31 And then Simtex, DJ Simtex in London,
07:34 heard it and played it on BBC Radio 1 in London.
07:40 And that was like the first international look I ever had
07:45 and some of the first radio play I had ever received.
07:50 Shout out to Simtex.
07:51 He's always been a real friend to me
07:53 and an amazing supporter of my music.
08:00 "This Wish" is a new song with myself, Chance, and G-Eazy.
08:05 It came off a writing camp
08:08 that Chance and I were doing in LA.
08:11 Just having fun, honestly.
08:12 It's a different vibe for us.
08:15 Like, it lets you see us in a different light,
08:18 something more playful.
08:20 In a way, a modern representation
08:24 of some of the older music that we might've made.
08:28 G-Eazy and I go way, way back
08:31 and I ran into him in London around fashion week.
08:36 We got in the studio and he helped me
08:38 figure out the arrangement of the song.
08:41 He was the one that said that,
08:43 "Make some shake for me, part should be the hook.
08:47 We should repeat that."
08:49 He's really got a brilliant mind for songwriting.
08:52 And he jumped on and he had a killer verse.
08:55 Had a lot of fun shooting the video.
08:58 "Swish" out now.
09:00 I mean, in all honesty,
09:03 I've been collaborating with Chance
09:06 since way before we had careers.
09:08 I was high school,
09:10 some of our first studio sessions ever was together.
09:14 At age 14.
09:16 So, all these years later,
09:22 it often feels very natural
09:25 because we've been pushing each other to rap
09:28 since we were little kids.
09:30 I have the same love for the art of rapping,
09:37 making music that I did when I was 14 years old.
09:41 So, I have fun doing it.
09:45 Sometimes it's painful to do it.
09:48 It's often beautiful to do it.
09:52 And I feel that same spirit of inspiration
09:56 that I did when I was 14 years old
09:58 and we first started rapping together.
10:01 (pencil scratching)
10:04 (paper rustling)
10:07 (pencil scratching)
10:10 (paper rustling)
10:31 (pencil scratching)
10:34 My writing process is like excavating a diamond
10:46 out of a deep mine.
10:48 I gotta dig and dig and dig.
10:51 But at the bottom is an incredibly precious gem.
10:56 It takes time.
10:59 I don't often use a pen and a paper.
11:02 I usually just write in my mind.
11:04 And I just repeat the words over and over again
11:09 until it comes through me.
11:12 It's a very spiritual process for me.
11:14 I like to bring my ancestors into the room.
11:19 Sometimes I envision my grandmother
11:23 and I envision my uncle smiling
11:26 and I see them passing me down the information
11:31 and the energy to come through me.
11:33 I feel like creativity is just a channel.
11:38 So sometimes I meditate before I start to write
11:41 just to open myself up and allow myself
11:45 to let greatness come through me.
11:48 I pray while I write.
11:50 I meditate while I'm writing.
11:54 I send a blessing while I'm writing.
11:56 I'm studying while I'm writing.
11:58 I might be reading a book on ancient Egypt
12:02 or I might be looking at a bad bitch Instagram.
12:07 It's so many human emotions all at once.
12:13 But yes, all in my head though.
12:16 I just write in my head.
12:18 (paper rustling)
12:22 (soft music)
12:25 The advice I would give to my younger self is
12:28 control your thoughts, gain control over your mind.
12:33 Make a decision about what you wanna give your energy to.
12:39 Make a decision about who you wanna be.
12:42 Take action that furthers that goal.
12:46 Everything else, let it be.
12:49 It's unnecessary.
12:50 Send away.
12:52 I'm Vic Mensa.
12:53 Thank you so much for coming to my mind massage.
12:56 Make sure to check out my new song, "Swish"
12:58 with Chance the Rapper and G-Eazy.
13:00 Out now.
13:01 - Perfect, that was awesome, Vic.
13:05 Thank you so much. - Cool.
13:07 No doubt.
13:08 - Okay, guys.
13:10 - Whispering like a--
13:11 (static)