Vic Mensa Is Joining UnitedMasters — and INNANETAPE Is Finally Coming to Streaming
Photo Credit: Patonya Parker
If you were paying attention to Chicago in 2013, you know what INNANETAPE was. For most of the last decade, one of the most defining mixtapes of the 2010s has lived where mixtapes used to live: free download links, YouTube rips, a folder on somebody’s old laptop. On September 30, that changes. INNANETAPE arrives on streaming services for the first time, and it arrives through UnitedMasters.
The partnership goes well past the reissue. INNANETAPE is the first release, followed by a brand-new full-length album in 2027 and a slate of live performances we’ll announce soon.
Alyssa Castiglia, our Senior Director of A&R and Head of A&R Research, put it best: “Vic Mensa is a rare artist whose timeless music, multidisciplinary creativity, and commitment to truth make him exactly the kind of visionary UnitedMasters is proud to champion.”
Vic’s read on the partnership is the one I keep coming back to: “UnitedMasters is one of the smartest companies in this industry. The ways that they think about connective tissue between seemingly disparate facets of culture and how to leverage that for the artists they work with is truly unique.”
Vic has spent the years since INNANETAPE building outward — The Autobiography in 2017, Victor in 2023, and last June’s sundiata, his first fully independent project, released exclusively through his own site. Along the way: GRAMMY and NAACP Image Award nominations, arena runs with Jay-Z and Justin Bieber, collaborations with Kanye, Pharrell, Pusha T, and Skrillex. And alongside the music, an entire media practice — the Webby-winning Orange Tree Series, his new conversational show The Vic Mensa Show, the forthcoming film Halfrican, a fast-growing Substack, all now under his company ORANJ — plus 93 Boyz, Illinois’ first legally Black-owned cannabis brand, and a curatorial debut at Kavi Gupta.
Artists as dynamic and multi-faceted as Vic don’t fit neatly into a record deal, and they shouldn’t have to. Our job is to give someone building across music, film, media, and commerce a platform that treats all of it as one career rather than a series of unrelated side projects. all while making sure they own the results.
Vic joins a roster that had a genuinely significant 2025: BigXthaPlug, Brent Faiyaz, FloyyMenor, Veigh, Bay Swag, Armanii. Last month we welcomed La Reezy, the New Orleans artist named to the 2026 XXL Freshman Class. Vic’s signing points where we’re going next — deeper catalogs, longer-horizon artists, work that spans formats.
Thirteen years is a long time to wait for a record you already love. September 30 is close. Pre-save INNANETAPE here.
