by Dan-O

The post-Griselda landscape is flooded with cool album covers and grimy spitters selling expensive vinyl.  It was Madam Money’s YouTube review of Vic’s late 2020 release The Almighty Pen that really got me interested. She talked about the depth of his work in a way I had to explore(I hyperlinked her YouTube channel and the review in the previous sentence because Madame Money is awesome). The album is a real experience and the song I’m most swept up in is proof positive of Vic’s stand out talent. Economic Confessions starts with news reporting over world conflicts about water. As the soulful sample moans he begins “Majority of the water’s damaged around the planet…” and he’s talking about imperialism but he’s talking practical details like “The mops need water to clean the floors,” in ways you may never have thought about. Vic doesn’t relay information in a way that assumes you won’t get it. As he talks about private prisons and the substances that take forty years to clear out of your lungs, he’s right with you. He sounds like a smart friend helping you along and never a professor lecturing you. This is a talented dude with an interesting clipped tone to his voice and his guests know. Che Noir and Ransom don’t show up for everybody, they show out on The Almighty Pen in style.  The challenge for Vic moving forward is to further push and tweak the balance between street music and knowledge because he is strong in both and not everyone is. He can end up teaching you things without you even realizing it and that’s a power/responsibility/advantage that requires all your efforts to manage.