Vic Mensa discusses battling DJ Akademiks on ‘Everyday Struggle’
(Credit: Fr8nk Morales)

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Vic Mensa discusses battling DJ Akademiks on ‘Everyday Struggle’

In a new interview, Vic Mensa has opened up about his previous argument with DJ Akademiks on an episode of Everyday Struggle.

The squabble between the two happened in 2017 when Mensa appeared on the online show hosted by DJ Akademiks and Joe Budden. The programme became tense due to Akademiks’ line of questioning, and his decision to probe Mensa about War in Chiraq, his YouTube series that parodied street violence in Chicago. “I wanted to slap you in your face, honestly,” Mensa told Akademiks. “People exactly like you sensationalized and made a following off of clowning situations that we go through in real life.”

He added: “I think n****** ain’t have no right. You specifically, you ain’t never have a right. Whatever made you feel like you had a space to have a perspective on our people dying on a daily basis?”

Now, Mensa has opened up about the incident to Paper, and explained why he reacted in the manner he did on the set of Everyday Struggle. He said: “The Drill movement was always conflicting for me. While I loved the artistic expression in the music, I also had a front-row seat to the real-life accompaniment to that music. Friends of mine were killed in the midst of Drill rap beef and all that s***.” .

Mensa continued, “That was why I got into it with Akademiks, because a kid that I grew up with and went to karate with when we were five years old ended up being a street n******, gang banging, et cetera. He was also a very talented rapper. When he got killed, there was music involved, there were big Drill artists involved, and I heard about it on Akademiks’ parasitic platform. So that’s why I was upset.”

Meanwhile, last year, Mensa was arrested after being found with hallucinogenic drugs at Dulles International Airport, near Washington D.C. after he’d been in Ghana with fellow Chicago rapper Chance The Rapper. The rapper reached an agreement to complete one year of unsupervised probation, carry out 25 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine.