Vic Mensa has made it a point throughout his career to speak publicly on generational, societal, racial and gender issues, dating back to his debut project, INANNETTAPE, in 2013. The Roc Nation rapper continued that trend this weekend, when he dropped “Free Love,” a song aimed at paying respect to the LGBT community. The release of the record coincided with NYC’s Pride parade, and the song itself features known supporters of the LGBT community: Halsey, Malik Yusef, Lil B and Le1f, an openly gay artist.

“You can f*ck who you want to f*ck,” raps Vic on the song, which was released in conjunction with a personal message posted by Mensa to his Twitter account, attached below. “We have to be removed from our comfort zone to be able to grow. It felt like some subconscious judgement inside of me had to die to be able to really accept someone I love with my whole heart telling me that this is who they are. Once that happened, it was as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I couldn’t feel indifferent about something that was so important to people I love.”

June 27, 2016