“The only way it’s really affected me personally is by making me feel like I have to get it popping ASAP while I still am so young, but a bit of motivation never hurt anyone,” says Vic Mensa, the youngest member of Brainiac Society a collective of artists, DJs, and producers handpicked by Naledge of Kidz In The Hall.
Mensa was added to the crew in the winter of 2009, attending studio sessions as soon as the final bell rang at Chicago’s Whitney Young where he is still a student. “I’ve pretty much always been able to get by in school without having to do too much, so I’ve really just kept on doing what I’ve been doing. There have been those nights when I miss homework time because I’m in the studio, but it’s all good.”
It’s all good because Mensa displays “better than good” emceeing abilities. Put in his music and it’s very easy to forget that he’s not old enough to vote. On the heels of his first release, an EP titled Straight Up, we turn our First Look spotlight on Chicago’s youngest hopeful, Vic Mensa.