Vic Mensa is not kidding around at all on his freestyle over Twenty One Pilots‘ “Heathens.” The track tackles violence and the hard streets in his hometown of Chicago with lines like, “Grew up around heathens, the streets made us Tarzans/ Slangin’ Mary Jane, swangin’ out a mini van/ Banana clips for gorillas and cold killers/ Percy Miller black card got no limits,” he raps. “My history is filled with a long list of regrets/ Looking back at my past, doing this victory lap/ Surprised I made it, young eyes grown jaded/ Since they killed my brother dead wonder why I be faded/ At times I feel guilt for being the boy who lived.”
The politically active MC — who logged time recently protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline — gets very personal on the song, adding, “I could have been the one with that knife inside my ribs/ I guess God had bigger plans for the kid/ When I woke up still alive on that hospital bed.”
The track also has some pointed observations about police and the struggle against being victimized and stereotyped. “Man, trust/ You can rock a Rollie or handcuffs/ Either way the police gonna say pull your pants up/ Since you in the country they don’t want you to stand up.”
Check out the track: