EXCLUSIVE: Chicago rap superstar Vic Mensa sits down with FOX 32

This past year we brought you rising stars from around Chicago, but Vic Mensa is a star that has already risen.

The 24-year-old rapper released his debut album "The Autobiography" in July. It's an honest tale about life from the Hyde Park native and citizen of the world.

Raised on the South Side in a household of educators, Vic Mensa's parents always stressed school but it was on a family vacation where Vic started to visualize his musical dreams.

And quickly his dreams were coming true, cutting his teeth with the much buzzed about but short lived group, “Kids These Days.” Soon the likes of Kanye West and Jay-Z were knocking on his door, with Jay-Z calling him a once in a lifetime artist, signing him to his Roc Nation label and taking him on tour this past fall.

As Vic began garnering fame as rapper, his role as an activist also started taking shape, with the Laquan McDonald shooting catapulting him as a voice for young people around Chicago.

With both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former police superintendent Garry McCarthy considering mayoral runs in 2019, Mensa does not hold back on their potential candidacies.

Mensa has also taken his advocacy outside of Chicago to places like Standing Rock, Flint and Palestine. He sees a connection between the hardships of these places and his own experience growing up on the South Side.

After witnessing so much suffering around the world and in his own hometown, Vic found it necessary to squash the rift that had been growing between him and his longtime friend, Chance The Rapper.

And though he has played the part of a friend, rapper and activist, there's one role he has yet to land: the role of Prince in a biopic.

"The Autobiography" by Vic Mensa is out now and available everywhere.