For many, the decision to stop drinking follows a personal epiphany or a slow recognition of the costs. For Vic Mensa, though, it took a whirlwind, near-fatal encounter with the Italian mob to nudge him in the direction of sobriety finally.
On Sunday (March 23), the Chicago rapper broke his silence about the terrifying experience in a candid social media post detailing a night of drunken partying that went wrong.
Mensa recounted the ordeal beginning on his tour bus, where he had already been drinking. He landed in the middle of a fraught confrontation while at a friend's DJ set. Fueled by liquid courage, Mensa was determined to intervene with a bottle of Ace of Spades in tow.
"I'm insane, so I already had the bottle of Ace of Spades in my hand. Boom, I crashed his ass," Mensa remembers. "It was an immediate free for all like a s### show. I told you, I got one friend in the building. Now this s### not going well. I'm getting pummelled up, down like a cartoon, fists in a cloud."
Things got out of control quickly, and Mensa soon was hopelessly outnumbered.
"I'm getting jumped by eight n##### at one time, no Diddy. Next thing I know, I'm getting choked out of the club too. I'm dolo in the alley. I see a black Suburban truck. And I'm looking like this s### a fairy tale. I'm just thinking this m########### is delivered from God to save me. This not my car at all. I attempt to open the door, the n#### locks the door on me."
When he found out that he had to spend $10,000 to feel safe during his performance the next night, the gravity of what was going on hit him. For Mensa, the traumatic night was more than just another raucous evening; it was a tipping point. It forced him to examine some of the self-destructive habits in his life, and he finally decided to put alcohol behind him for good.
The rapper has long been candid about his battles with mental health issues and addiction over the years and has rendered his plight public in the process. In a different video posted on Mensa's Instagram, he said he just recently attended his 2nd Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on March 20, 2025, celebrating almost 4 years sober. He has said that his problems with alcohol were intimately linked to his longstanding battle with depression.
"When I went to the meeting, I figured out that my substance abuse problems stemmed from a lifetime of depression," he said.
Instead of turning to drugs and alcohol, Mensa has embraced mindfulness and meditation. "Meditation is like my medication," he said of the practice that helped him attain inner peace.
In addition to taking steps to remedy his sobriety, Mensa is full steam ahead in music. Last but not least, he released his take on Doechii's latest freestyle, "Anxiety. " In this one, he reminds listeners he's still out here killing the game, and this time, of a sound mind. John Vic Mensa's road to recovery has not been easy, but it does speak to a story of resilience, growth, and the power of self-awareness.
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