VIC MENSA Thurs 12/14 Moda Center
VIC MENSA Thurs 12/14 Moda Center Roc Nation

Thereā€™s a very famous rapper, businessman, and husband performing at the Moda Center Thursday night, and considering the number of mega-popstars who pass through our fair burg, thatā€™s something to be excited about. Jay-Z is a legend, plain and simple, and if youā€™d like to know more about him or his solid new album, 4:44... I donā€™t know, Google it?

But if youā€™re going to the show, be sure to get there on time so youā€™re not one of those folks wandering in during the opener. Vic Mensa is probably the biggest young MC not named Chance to come out of Chicago in recent years. Mensa and Chance the Rapper are old friends and collaborators, and they share some attributes: artistic ambition, social awareness, a knack for melodic hip-hop, and singing voices they arenā€™t afraid to use. But while Chance pushes his rhymes through a positive, faith-based perspective, Mensa explores darker and harder-edged themes.

He broke through in 2013 with an excellent full-length mixtape called Innanetape that showcased his jazz-hop interests and limber flow, then followed that up with a couple of EPs before dropping his official debut, The Autobiography, in July. Itā€™s not perfectā€”releasing rap albums in the Kendrick era is tough, manā€”but itā€™s a perfectly enjoyable tour of Mensaā€™s strengths. The guy picks solid beats, some built from old soul music (ā€œSay I Didnā€™tā€), others based on Weezer songs (ā€œHomewreckerā€), and still others with a hard funk feel (ā€œRollinā€™ Like a Stonerā€).

No matter what kind of track heā€™s rapping against, Mensaā€™s rhymes touch on insecurity, addiction, despair, sex, violence, street life, and rockinā€™ ā€œleather like a punk.ā€ In fact, Mensa seems obsessed with the rock-star lifestyle. He makes punk flyers for his concerts, wears studded jackets and Casualties T-shirts, and his shows are apparently wild-eyed, high-energy spectacles. Bottom line: The guy comes at rap music from an interesting, thoughtful, and talented place.