Sep 30, 2026 · 20 min
Vic Mensa revisits the basement origins of The Internet Tape
INNANETAPE: Thirteen Years of Loading
The conversation frames the project’s 2026 streaming release as a reckoning with independence, artistic identity, and a long-delayed legacy.
- 1Vic Mensa traces The Internet Tape to a psychedelic experience and the breakup of Kids These Days.
- 2The project’s artwork turns futuristic, psychedelic imagery into a record of its evolving artistic identity.
- 3Mensa connects the album’s orange symbolism to introspection, vibrancy, and his deliberate pursuit of happiness.
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Vic Mensa explains how a psychedelic experience in his parents’ basement sparked The Internet Tape after Kids These Days dissolved.
The brief
Vic Mensa traces The Internet Tape to a psychedelic experience in his parents’ basement, after Kids These Days broke apart and changed his musical perspective.
The project grew from Chicago influences, sampling instincts, and a push toward independence, making its long-delayed release part of a larger artistic reckoning.
Mensa revisits the cover’s futuristic, psychedelic 3D-scan aesthetic and admits he still prefers the original artwork that was never used.
Orange becomes more than a playful reference: Mensa describes it as a deliberate symbol of vibrancy and happiness amid the album’s introspective emotionality.
The 2026 streaming release gives The Internet Tape a new place in Mensa’s legacy, while the conversation preserves the uncertainty and experimentation that shaped it.