Vic Mensa Wants His Music to Help Others Come to Terms With Their Mental Health

Vic Mensa stops by Sway in the Morning for a 20-minute long interview touching on a myriad of topics. The conversation's most interesting tidbit is centered around the issue of mental health. The Chicago MC raps about struggling with depression on his latest LP, There's A Lot Going On, and he hopes his music can help others come to terms with their own mental health states. View the interview in full above via YouTube.

Vic tells Sway, "Mental health is something that a lot of people just aren't ready to talk about, especially in the black community, especially black men. It's very taboo, it's very outside of the norm for black men to think it's okay to see a therapist or anything like that."

The South Side, Chi artist continues, "It's all shied away from, and I think my purpose in making music is to tell my truth as fully as I can, so if by doing that I can make somebody else feel comfortable in their truth, that's an accomplishment to me."

The Save Money/Roc Nation rapper also touches on his label situation and his relationship with hip-hop heavyweights Jay Z and Kanye West.

"I had the situation with Roc Nation already going on and in the works before I met Kanye. But that was around the time we made 'U Mad' and we were gonna release that," Vic says. "It was just conversations, but everything works out the way it does for a reason. And it's all family. I talked to Kanye on his birthday a couple days ago, talked to Hov a couple days ago. It's all love."

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Vic's recent mixtape, There's A Lot Going On. Stay tuned to XXL for more news regarding the 23-year-old lyricist.

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