How Vic Mensa almost found himself electrocuted
Vic Mensa is now a hip-hop star in his own right, but he was once just a kid trying to sneak his way into festivals like the everyday fan.
The Chicago rapper first made a name for himself in the early 2010s as a member of the band Kids These Days, before going on to achieve solo fame with his 2013 mixtape INNANETAPE. His success alongside buzzing childhood friend Chance The Rapper led to a position in the 2014 XXL Freshmen Class and signing a record deal with Roc Nation.
Years before his popularity, Vic Mensa had a near-death experience while attempting to get into Lollapalooza — a festival located in his hometown. “I was trying to get in and they had upped security from the day before — it was just impossible to get in like I got in the day before,” he told Billboard. “I was trying to do something crazy, climbing down the train structure over on Monroe over a bridge. And I touched a transformer on my arm right there.”
He continued, “My arm just shot out in front of me and it was strange… it was really surreal. I was seeing myself from an overhead view, like, and I just saw my arm shoot out like Frankenstein and I fell like 30 feet. Then I got up, which was weird too, cuz I definitely could have broken my neck.”
Despite going through a terrifying moment, it gave Vic Mensa appreciation for being alive and going on to perform at the festival himself. “You know, the whole thing was a spiritual experience, just living and being back is just amazing,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I almost killed me, but Lollapalooza was involved. The pursuit of Lollapalooza almost killed me, so to have it in my hands at this point in time is dope.”
Vic Mensa came close to death for another reason years later. Sitting down with SPIN last year, he opened up about drug use, almost leading him to commit suicide.
“The first drug I really felt dependent on was mushrooms,” he explained. “I started doing them abusively. Probably 100 times a year when I was like 19. But it wasn’t soul-searching. I started to lean on it as a creative crutch, and eventually, it just stopped working, and I started having bad trips — I would feel like my throat was closing and I was dying.
“In the pursuit of boosted creativity, I started doing a lot of molly and ecstasy. I was going to the bathroom in the middle of a studio session and railing molly with the powder falling on the ground. And I’m rolling up a dollar bill, on my hands and knees, railing it off the bathroom floor.”
He added, “When the molly crashed, I was so depressed and started snorting Adderall, then that stopped working. I would use each drug to the max until it stopped working, and so I was hellbent on killing myself. I was on a full warpath of suicide.”