Vic Mensa makes a bold statement in the fiery new video for “3 Years Sober” by his rock-leaning side band 93PUNX.
The clip, which dropped on Thursday morning (July 25), actually makes a number of bold statements, taking on racial strife, violence against LGBTQ Americans and the battle over birth control.
Co-directed by Mensa and Franc Fernandez, it opens with a shirtless Mensa shaving his face in preparation for putting on eyeshadow, lipstick and mascara as he hoarsely bellows the lyrics, “I was a dumb-ass drinking in a Volkswagen/ I was a hero looking for the heroin/ I was lost, I was gone,” over a thumping beat and distorted guitars.
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The track then explodes into a full-on punk ripper, with Mensa screaming “hey, you don’t know me anymore” as he rocks a long blonde wig and rages at the camera on the track, which also features explosive production from Blink-182‘s Travis Barker.
With the addition of a satin-y Confederate flag mini dress, red pumps and fishnets, Mensa moves on to a game of tug of war over a pack of birth control pills with an actor dressed as vice president Mike Pence before two men attack him in an alley and write the words “fraud” and “homo” on his face in marker.
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As he bellows “three years sober and I’m still hung over,” Mensa gets arrested for using a women’s bathroom after a group of angry women in a diner complain to the cops. “The ‘3 Years Sober’ video is a statement about identity,” Mensa wrote in a statement explaining the striking images in the clip. “I put on a confederate flag dress to be able to laugh at a symbol of hate, and played tug of war with Mike Pence over birth control. I had my face written on to get ahead of everything I know people will say about me and had a diner full of BBQ Becky’s call the police on me for using the women’s bathroom. I know some in hip hop culture will see this and say ‘Vic’s gay’ (which I’m not), whereas if I was white they’d just say ‘he’s a rockstar.’ 93PUNX is about being yourself, fuck what people think.”
The visual is the follow-up to June’s “Camp America” video from the rapper’s rap/rock side project, which took on the inhumane treatment of immigrants at the U.S. border.
Watch the “3 Years Sober” video below.