With Vic Mensa’s forthcoming debut album Traffic slated to release in 2016, the Chicago rapper spoke with Grant Brydon of SLASH Music to talk about his creative process, how he recorded Traffic and who he’s been working with as of lately.
The forthcoming debut is set to feature no guest spots and production credits from the likes of Rivers Cuomo, Mike Dean, John Hill and much more. Check out the full piece here.
Recorded between Chicago and Los Angeles, free of features and with a host of producers including Mike Dean, John Hill and Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio, Vic Mensa intends ‘Traffic’ to be an articulation of himself as a 22-year-old man in America: “It’s my perspective on everything going on around me, internally and externally. This overcoming of my struggles with my personal struggles and my interpersonal struggles with addiction and with my relationship, and with – I wouldn’t say politics, I don’t give a fuck about politics – but with the real world, with the streets.” The title comes from a hell of a lot of travelling; planes to St. Louis, trains to Chicago… “It made me think about an album where every song was a train down a different track,” he explains. “And every song was a journey to another place, to a different story in my life, a different part of my life, a different place, a different experience.”
The three tracks he’s selected to discuss in this piece feel like just that. From the dense electronic call to action of ‘Ring The Bell’, to the sprawling expression of hope in ‘Rage’, the third and final song is an exploration of a relationship that is another central theme on ‘Traffic’. Describing a snapshot of the first real relationship of his life, it’s a song that means a lot to him. “I was with this girl for four years and we just loved each other to a point of extreme hate sometimes. It’s really crazy, you know. And that relationship and how volatile and at times beautiful.”
Delivered over a loop from the bridge of Weezer’s ‘The Good Life’ (Rivers Cuomo would later invite Vic to a studio session, hear the track, and love it so much he laid down some vocals at the end of the song), Vic tells the story of his lover breaking into his flat, arguing while he juggles hiding weed under the sink and a half-dressed girl in his bathroom as the police discover the commotion. “It’s just one of the craziest experiences of my life,” he reflects. “I have a real fucking life that’s tumultuous and dangerous and beautiful at the same time. I recently realized I’m a hopeless romantic, and it stresses me out but it gives me things to talk about. My driving force is love but it’s kind of at times in conflict with the wild shit that comes along with being me.”
