Vic Mensa Thinks Rap Music Has the Power to Incite Global Change

Vic Mensa debuted his politically charged "16 Shots" at Sunday's (Feb. 28) Justice For Flint event and continued to show that he is one of the more socially conscious hip-hop artists in the game. The rapper dedicated the song to Laquan McDonald, a Chicagoan who was shot 16 times by police in Oct. 2014, and later marched in his home city to protest the gruesome death of the teen. The rapper has become one of the strongest voices in the rap world when it comes to raising awareness and wasted no time in getting to Flint, Michigan to bring attention to the Flint Water Crisis after he was invited by Creed director Ryan Coogler and his Blackout For Human Rights collective.

In a new interview with Billboard, Vic spoke on the Justice for Flint event, hip-hop as a vehicle for social change and his upcoming Traffic album.

Mensa feels that his voice can be an integral part in helping spread the word on the Flint situation and refers to the water crisis as "slow-motion genocide." "I definitely feel like my voice should be used to help spread the fuckin' facts," he said. "There’s not a lot of information that’s being given to people in ways they’re really paying attention to. Niggas is checking they Twitter and if there’s a hashtag -- which this is and has been -- they see it. But it’s not in plain sight. It’s not the same as whatever happened with Kim Kardashian yesterday. That’s bigger news. We’ve got to get our fuckin' heads and words together and do what we can to have people know what’s going on so it doesn’t take as long as it has taken for this Flint situation to come to light. Because it was just poor people that were being affected and being poisoned. It’s really slow-motion genocide. And it’s not that slow. But when it was just poor people, they wouldn’t even listen."

The Chicago native believes that music and art can help incite change and thinks the people gravitate more towards rap music than they do public speakers or politicians. "I definitely think that art is one of the main mediums with potential to incite real change because people gravitate towards rap music in particular not just for a message but because they like how it sounds. People aren’t usually gravitating towards public speakers and politicians because they’re like, ‘This is fresh. I want to listen to this in my car and vibe to this.’ Rap music, in my mind, is the art form with the biggest potential to incite global change. It spans so many different races, colors, creeds, ages, nationalities. It’s really come to a point where it’s so global and there’s so many people listening that if you give them something that can actually help them while they’re listening it’s the best way to get messages across."

The Roc Nation signee has been discussing his Traffic album since 2014, but has released very little confirmed music from the project. He explained that the lack of output is deliberate and the delay is due to the changing subject matter as he continues to hit events like Justice for Flint. "I’m working on Traffic and really crafting something that’s so fully representative of my life experiences, my stories, my opinions and my innermost feelings that I want it to be a complete, full representation So that’s what we’re doing -- just making a masterpiece. That’s why the output has been scarce. When my album comes out, you gonna know me better than you know a lot of your friends. They don’t tell you their deepest darkest secrets and loftiest aspirations. My album is so personal to the point where it’s like somebody listening to it that really sits and takes their time with it is gonna know me more than I might even want them to know me."

Mensa and Skrillex dropped their "No Chill" video in mid-Feb. No word on if the song will be featured on Traffic.

See 40 Hip-Hop Albums Turning 20 in 2016