Multi-platinum Grammy nominated rapper/producer Vic Mensa has released “$WISH,” his second major song of the year, via Roc Nation. The single, which reunites Vic with long time friends and collaborators Chance The Rapper and G-Eazy, is a braggadocious banger in which the three MCs trade increasingly elaborate boasts about their respective successes.
“$WISH came from a writing camp me & Chance did in LA working on a bunch of music together,” states Vic, “it was really just a fun, spontaneous vibe. Me & Bongo were freestyling and then Chance said he had a line so I just recorded him putting his verse together. G-Eazy is one of my best friends in the industry and someone I’ve known for probably 12 years, so it just all made sense.” The single follows the release of January’s “Strawberry Louis Vuitton (feat. Thundercat and Maeta),” a soulful love jam that was accompanied by an awe-inspiring music video in which Mensa performed the song while skydiving in a custom recreation of a Virgil Abloh suit. The single yielded a release week performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert for which Vic was accompanied by Maeta and Phony Ppl.
The two new singles form the foundation of what is a landmark year for the Chicago-based artist, kicking off in January with the inaugural Black Star Line Festival in Ghana, the ongoing Skin & Masks art show he curated for Kavi Gupta Gallery, the official launch of his Books Before Bars initiative (which channels profits from his cannabis brand 93Boyz to purchase and distribute books to underserved correctional facilities), and much more in the pipeline.
Following on the success of Black Star Line Festival, which Vic organized alongside Chance as a free one-day festival in Accra that drew a staggering 52,000 attendees, the pair of MCs traveled to Jamaica to scout locations for an anticipated follow up next year. Much more to come in the coming months.
Listen to “$WISH (feat. Chance The Rapper and G-Eazy)”
http://vicmensa.lnk.to/swishsingle
Watch the “$WISH (feat. Chance The Rapper and G-Eazy)” visualizer
Vic Mensa, photo credit: Tinley
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