All Day: Vic Mensa Is Now a Star, and His Victory Lap Was a Secret Show Last Night in Chicago

Vic Mensa / Photo by Bryan Allen Lamb

"They made a list of Chicago rappers and they skipped me / maybe because I'm so much more…."

Vic Mensa, an underdog to some, but certainly not to himself, returned to Chicago for a homecoming show last night. Vic Mensa went from up-and-coming Chicago rapper who was just a prominent part of the group SAVEMONEY to up-and-coming rapper who was touring with J. Cole and then Disclosure to making cool house-oriented rap songs with Kaytranada to, suddenly, in the last month, becoming maybe the most closely watched young rapper in the world, thanks to an emphatic co-sign by Kanye West. He's on Kanye's new song "Wolves" with Sia, Kanye brought him out to perform in London, and now everybody in the world wants to know about Vic Mensa. He's gone from local hero to budding international star.

Last night, he performed "Wolves," rocked with his SAVEMONEY brothers on stage, and satisfied an energetic crowd of hometown fans. It's hard to predict what Vic will do next, but that's the fun of it. To the outside world, the rapper seems like an overnight success, but a chunk of last night's audience have probably kept tabs on the rapper since his high school days, before he was touring overseas and teaming up with Kanye West. Because the fact is that Vic Mensa represents Chicago with a fiery, soulful spirit. He's climbed industry ladders without ever letting us forget where he came from—or where he's going—and isn't shy to crowd surf along the way. He's careful not to forget his roots; he mentioned living out of his suitcase in recent times and changed up his 2013 song, "Orange Soda," with a free-style about working in Paris with Kanye last weekend. This was Vic's first Chicago show since the Kanye endorsement happened, so it was both a victory lap and a homecoming, as well as a chance for his most loyal fans and friends to get a sense of where he's headed next. He closed the out show performing his own version of Kanye West's "All Day" with his rap collective, SAVEMONEY—making his mark once again.

See photos of the performance below. All photos by Bryan Allen Lamb.