- Vic Mensa’s “U Mad”
Ever since Vic Mensa crawled up next to Kanye West during the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special in February the young Save Money rapper has been making big moves to establish himself as an artist to watch, particularly for a pop audience that generally doesn’t pay attention to too many rappers not named Kanye West. So far this year Mensa has appeared on two of West’s new singles (“Wolves” and “All Day”), roped West to guest on a single of his own called “U Mad,” and signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation in April. Yesterday Mensa released the video for “U Mad,” a horn-blasting, wide-screen, bombastic track and places the MC in a red-lit room where more sparks rain down from the ceiling than in an action flick.
When these unfortunately familiar, brutal images appear in “U Mad” they add a new wrinkle to the track. Mensa’s capable of stronger lyrics than some of what he shovels here, and his Ray Rice reference is a low point. Yet much of what he raps about is self-worth—sometimes in the face of condemnation—and Mensa’s performance feels huge partially because he’s able to inflect it with the sense that he’s had to fight to get to where he is.
