On 'The Autobiography,' Vic Mensa Faces His Personal Demons And Emerges Stronger

Vic Mensa has many tattoos, but there's one that is particularly striking: the phrase "still alive," emblazoned on his stomach. One of the stories behind that tattoo comes from a time when, as a teenager, Mensa almost died trying to sneak into Lollapalooza.

The rapper says his plan was to climb over a bridge near the grounds and down a structure that carried power for Chicago's Metra trains. But he touched a transformer that shocked him with 15,000 volts of electricity, and fell 30 feet onto the tracks. "Either one of things alone is enough to kill somebody," Mensa says. "I was blessed enough to not die from that."

Years later, in 2016, Mensa would find himself headlining that same festival. He just turned 24 this year, and after years of rapping and collaborating with stars like , and , Mensa has.