Vic Mensa has claimed that he once got involved in a violent brawl with Italian gangsters that cost him $10,000 to ensure his safety.
In a video posted on social media on Sunday (March 23), the Chicago rapper detailed the wild altercation and explained how it led to him becoming sober.
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Mensa began by saying he was drunk at a club one night when his friend called for his help after being attacked.
“The next thing I see is my mans down in the crowd in a sea of strangers going like this, ‘Vic! So I start going down there,” he called. “He like, ‘G, they just choked me and dragged me out the club! And they not even security!’ I’m like, ‘Who? Who did this to you?’”
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After his friend identified the attacker, who was stood just a few feet away, Mensa continued: “I’m a nut so I already had bottle of Ace of Spades in my hand. Boom! I crashed his ass. Immediately, this shit turned into a melee.
“I told you, I only got one friend in the building. Now this shit is not going well. I’m getting punched up and down like cartoon fists in a cloud. I’m getting wrestled by eight n-ggas at one time, no Diddy [laughs].
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“Next thing I know, I too am getting choked out the club. I’m dolo in the alley. I see a black Suburban truck. I’m thinking this muthafucka is sent by God to save me [laughs]. It’s not my car at all. I try to open the door, the n-gga locked the door on me.”
After running to safety and arriving back at his hotel, Vic learned that the men he was fighting were Italian mobsters.
the time i got into it with the italian mob pic.twitter.com/10fCAK7Uxo
— Vic Mensa (@VicMensa) March 23, 2025
“My mans called me, who I didn’t even know was in that city at that time. He was like, ‘Man, that was the Italian mob. They finna kill you!’ I couldn’t breathe right again,” he joked, imitating an asthma attack.
The Roc Nation MC said he then called his “big homie” in Chicago who negotiated a $10,000 settlement for the mobsters to back down, so long as he still performed at the club the following night.
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“I’m thinking this shit could be a sinister set-up. When I tell you my section was so muthafucking dry. It wasn’t no hoes in my shit. I got these eight big-ass 7-foot Africans with me,” he continued.
“Long story short, I get the bread, I pay the mob. Oh yeah, but that’s another one of the reasons why I don’t drink.”
Vic Mensa celebrated two years of sobriety in 2023, crediting it with helping him become the “best version” of himself.
“I’ve had to learn how to face my emotions head on, nowhere to run to, nothing to hide behind,” he wrote on Instagram. “I have thought a lot about the difference between fun and joy. Many of the things I’ve always done in the pursuit of fun didn’t actually bring me joy, were actually antithetical to the pursuit of joy.
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“I’m at a point where if an action is not actively furthering my goals, professionally, mentally, spiritually, physically… it doesn’t have a place in my life right now. I’ve gotten used to saying no. N-ggas know i might show up to the club for 6.3 minutes but more likely not at all.”
He added: “I’m building the best version of myself brick by brick, day by day, moment by moment. Everyone doesn’t have to see it, they don’t have to honor it, but i promise you, by the time im done they will respect it.”
