vic-mensa

Vic Mensa Performs “16 Shots” With Powerful Anti-Trump Message

Earlier this year, Chicago MC Vic Mensa released his powerful track 16 Shots. The track is about Chicago teenager Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by police officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014.

On the eve of one of, if not America’s most controversial elections ever, Vic Mensa performed the powerful anti-police brutality track live on Jimmy Kimmel Live He was joined on stage by former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker.

Mensa began the performance by going a capella to announce and emphasise the message of the song. He then jumped on stage, and while he performed, he engaged in a dramatic struggle against his back-up performers in police riot gear.

In the last minute of his performance Mensa stopped the music and used his platform to deliver a powerful and politically-charged message to everyone to get out there and vote tomorrow:

“I’m a young black man from Chicago, and I’m tired of not being able to trust the police. I want to have faith in the men and women sworn to protect me. I don’t want to see another 17-year-old kid like Laquan McDonald murdered in the street. So when I hear a candidate talking about ‘law and order’ and ‘stop and frisk is the answer to our problems’ – you don’t know our problems in Chicago, and you damn sure don’t speak for us. Tomorrow we have the biggest election of our lifetime, so you gotta get out and vote against hate, because Donald Trump is a racist and if you don’t vote, racism wins.”

Watch the full performance below.

Image: DJBooth