Back in the fall, Vic Mensa made mention that he’d been working on a bunch of new projects. One of those included a “more straightforward rap” effort alongside Ty Dolla $ign, and it looks like that will be the first one to see release. Mensa has announced a new EP called Hooligans, and it indeed features Ty, as well as a number of other collaborators.
Out December 14th via Roc Nation/Capitol, Hooligans serves as the follow-up to Mensa’s 2017 full-length debut, The Autobiography. In addition to Ty Dolla $ign, guests include Lil Herb, Charlie Wilson, Jesse Rutherford of The Neighbourhood, and Mr Hudson. The previously released track “Reverse” featuring G-Eazy also appears on the EP.
Along with the announcement, Mensa has shared a new single and its accompanying visuals. The track is called “Dark Things” and sees the Chicago rapper dipping his toes into the sort of emo rap that’s been booming from SoundCloud recently. You can hear it right from the first verse where Mensa raps, “I need you to love me like I never loved me/ Everyone around me wants something from me/ Pretty girls want the truth, but the truth is ugly/ She don’t even like me, she just wanna fuck me,” before asking how he can get into the 27 club. The song comes via a moody video that features some Queen of the Damned meets True Blood occult vibes.
Check out the clip below.
There’s no tracklist for Hooligans yet, but Mensa did comment on the title in a statement: “Growing up we referred to ourselves as the Hyde Park Hooligans, so with the EP I wanted to encapsulate energies that represented that experience as well as what’s going on in my life now, for better or for worse.”
