The Vic Mensa Show

Vic Mensa hosts legendary guest and pro skater, Tony Hawk. They deep dive into skating culture, and Vic shares how much Tony Hawk's Pro Skater meant to him as a kid. They talk about the business behind being a pro skater, the iconic tricks, the love, the haters and even Tony Hawk's direct connection to music, and how much Black people love him.
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(00:00) Cold open
(00:55) Rage Against the Machine and the Pro Skater soundtrack
(04:04) Virgil, Pharrell and skating on the South Side
(09:01) Dead Kennedys, Police Truck and Gang of Four
(16:51) Skate videos and the Bones Brigade
(25:10) Learning kickflips alone
(30:25) Building skateparks from Navajo Nation to Ghana
(36:37) An outcast in an outcast world
(43:03) The 900 and what failure teaches
(54:34) Rodney Mullen or Nietzsche
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Imagine getting so high and thinking… I am the internet. Vic Mensa sits down and takes us through the Innanet Tape era, circa 2013. The who, the what and the whys of how this project was created, friendships gained and lost, and what doors creating this work of art opened for him as an artist. Now, in 2026, The Innanet Tapes will be released on DSPs and streaming everywhere, on September 30th. Check it out.
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(00:00) Cold open
(00:32) Kids These Days and the breakup
(04:59) Do or die: the first solo project
(08:48) The Chicago blueprint: Common, Kanye and Lupe
(11:13) Independent then and now
(12:56) The cover art
(14:27) Finally on streaming
(16:57) Why orange?
(17:57) Reading the liner notes
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Vic sits down with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Durand Bernarr to talk about the cost of being loved by the public, why Durand is letting go of labels and the queer genius behind Black church music. The two also perform their collaboration "Homesick," off Durand's album Bernarr.
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Guest: Durand Bernarr
(00:00) Cold open and live performance
(04:26) Grateful and still unhappy: fame and personal space
(09:41) Not hating, just not your target audience
(13:35) Mango Butter and being everything at once
(16:42) Mr. Brady and homophobia in the Black community
(20:28) Ghana and the colonizer in the mind
(22:29) The queer genius of the Black church
(24:58) Prince, D'Angelo, Michael and the R&B lean
(30:29) Sugar Family, three personalities and 20 years in
(37:46) Real success and asking before you hug
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Vic sits down with Van Lathan Jr., Oscar-winning producer, CNN panelist, and co-host of Higher Learning, for a conversation about politics, culture and the true cost of freedom. At its heart is an honest reckoning with the Black experience: the price of "earning your humanity" through talent and how one word flattens a whole world of culture, whether you're standing in Chicago, Ghana, or South Africa.
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🎤 Guest: Van Lathan Jr.
(00:00) Cold open
(01:13) Van Jones, Palestine and the price of the invitation
(12:13) Reparations, Coates and the white liberals
(19:33) The Matrix was a documentary
(26:56) Kamala, the aunties and who the party serves
(34:46) Whose dead bodies matter
(44:15) Get Rich or Die Tryin' and the violence that raised us
(01:02:28) Black here, Black in Ghana, Black in South Africa
(01:19:23) Boxing, Spike Lee and Mo' Better Blues
(01:56:20) TMZ, the headlines and the cost of being watched
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"What is your concept of God?" Vic welcomes Grammy Award-winning rapper and friend, Rapsody, to the show. They get into her album 'God Gotta Afro and Gold Hoops' and the trip to Ghana that inspired it. They also touch on the mental health of Black men, misogyny, and the Black female MC experience. Two of the sharpest pens in the game, giving each other their flowers.

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(00:00) Cold open: Africa on the map, and who's really poor

(01:32) "What is your concept of God?" — the meaning behind God Gotta Afro and Gold Hoops

(06:38) The Ghana trip: blue hour, colonial radio and bleaching cream

(12:09) The women who raised her and Black women as the standard of beauty

(14:51) Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin and where Black men go to cry

(23:17) Stand Tall, sexuality and hip-hop's woman-hating problem

(32:33) The "female MC" label and the hardest rappers

(39:25) Why Lauryn Hill walked away

(42:50) Pinterest boards, colorism and The Wiz-inspired video

(52:32) Stubborn faith, the slave castles and giving each other flowers
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