Vic Mensa is a man of the people.
The 23-year-old rapper has never been afraid of voicing his opinion on political issues and on Wednesday night he was spotted protesting the 1,172-mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline project that’s threatening the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation in North Dakota.
If the pipeline is completed, it would send 470,000 barrels of crude oil under the Missouri River each day. A spill could contaminate the Native American community’s drinking water supply.
Mensa explained the history of the demonstrations in a series of social media posts, describing the violence protesters have faced from authorities. He joins a long list of celebrities condemning the project including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, and Neil Young.
“I’m learning so much from these people. It’s been a blessing to be out here,” he admitted in one video. “Everybody that sees this needs to tell everybody that they know the situation at Standing Rock. This is by treaty, by law, this is land that belongs to the Standing Rock Sioux. Now an oil company wants to put a pipeline through their water source.”
He plans on returning to the reservation on December 4 and is encouraging his fans to join him.
“Standing Rock is the most important struggle to support right now. what has been done to native americans for 500+ years can’t continue,” he wrote on Twitter. In another tweet, he tried to put the #NoDAPL movement in perspective for other marginalized communities. “Standing Rock is BLM. standing rock is LGBTQ rights. standing rock is the latino struggle. all this shit is one.”
Watch Vic Mensa discuss his latest mixtape and using his voice as a platform below.