Chances are, if you have been bumping Chance the Rapper’s sophomore mixtape Acid Rap for the last few months, you are already familiar with Vic Mensa’s seductively-crackly tenor tone which tied together that album’s sensual “Cocoa Butter Kisses.” At the end of September, Mensa dropped a second mixtape of his own that truly showcases his vision. At just 20 years old, Chicago-based Mensa reaches an impressive level of maturity and creativity in Innanetape, which hosts appearances from Ab-Soul, Thundercat and Chance the Rapper himself.
Innanetape’s title reads almost like “inane-tape,” and song titles like “Orange Soda” and “Tweakin’” only reinforce this reading, though the first track “Welcome to INNANET” sets the record straight. The opener slides smoothly from a preamble that warns of a new artistic identity cultivated in the internet age into the kickback-anthem “Orange Soda.Û
“Lovely Day,” picks up this playful and relaxed tone with some hyphy electronic soul music ultimately joined by a bebop trumpet that rides out the track. However, “Tweakin’” manages to shift to the grimy imagery of sawed-off shotguns and kicked-in doors in a cohesive transition.
In the first verse in “Time is Money,” Mensa takes shots at the hypocrisy of political rhetoric while laying down some of his own in a rapid syllabic syncopation that illustrates his talent.
“All the pressures from record labels around me/In a Benz still tryin’ to sign me/Finally in a position to put all that shit behind me,” he raps in the song “Fear & Doubt.” He reports his relief at coming to some popularity of his own without the help of a major record label and the inherent constraints that would bring to his art.
In the closing remarks of Innanetape Mensa asks: “What’s left to say? Haven’t I said it all? Did I sing enough songs for you?” Though one cannot say that Mensa “said it all,” he dutifully fulfilled his task of crafting a strikingly original album loaded with solid songs.
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