Vic Mensa Says IShowSpeed's Africa Tour Is 'Undoing Harmful Stereotypes About The Continent.

Vic Mensa Says IShowSpeed's Africa Tour Is 'Undoing a Massive Amount of Propaganda' The rapper said that the 28-day streaming marathon gave a "firsthand account of the glory of Africa." JAELANI TURNER-WILLIAMS FEBRUARY 19, 2026 SHARE ADD COMPLEX ON GOOGLE (L) Vic Mensa attends the EBONY Power 100 Gala at The Beverly Hilton on November 04, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (R) IShowSpeed attends the 2025 A Year In TIME Event at Current at Chelsea Piers on December 10, 2025 in New York City. IMAGES VIA LEON BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES FOR EBONY MEDIA GROUP AND CRAIG BARRITT/GETTY IMAGES FOR TIME ADVERTISEMENT Vic Mensa was a fan of IShowSpeed’s 28-day livestream tour of Africa last month. The rapper and actor was a guest on the Wednesday (Feb. 18) episode of podcast One54 Africa, and around the one-hour, 22-minute mark, he was asked about his reaction to Speed’s recent global trek. From late December into January, the streamer visited 20 African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya, and received an official Ghanian passport. Mensa, who co-founded the Black Star Line Festival with Chance the Rapper in Accra, Ghana, praised Speed for undoing harmful stereotypes about the continent. “Speed's tour is singlehandedly undoing a massive amount of propaganda in the minds of so many,” Vic said. “Not just the youth, either, like just in the minds of so many American people. “I see elder black people. I see younger—I see white kids saying similar things [like], ‘Oh, I didn't know everyone wasn't in loin cloths running from baboons.’
Which sounds ridiculous but, also, Americans are not educated,” Mensa continued. “They are able to keep this massive finesse going because Americans are not educated. Americans not only don't have education, they have constant propaganda that is anti-intellectual force-fed to them.” The Sundiata artist added that by Speed digitally taking his massive social media following to the continent, he showed them “a firsthand account of the glory of Africa.”" “It's almost like they're traveling with him,” Vic said. “You watch somebody go through a whole continent and some of these kids are probably watching him like five, 10 hours a day … They’re experiencing Africa with him.” Vic was clearly tapped in with the stream. He noted that Speed questioned why he was unable to purchase diamonds in Botswana despite the country being a top diamond producer. “It's like literally eroding the colonial myth because they that's how they keep the thing going, is by these contracts and these false histories,” Mensa explained. Just as the month-long tour was eye-opening for Speed fans who haven’t been to Africa, the trip also had an impact on the 21-year-old streamer. “This tour [opened] my eyes … it sparked up something deep within me, very deep, like something from the root of me. It kinda [talked] to me in terms of like, I can do this,” IShowSpeed said in the clip below.

SOURCE