Vic Mensa Spills the Cheat Code for Creatives Who Want to Follow in His Footsteps

In part 2 of his exclusive conversation with BLACK ENTERPRISE, Mensa gets candid about building his production company and cannabis brand, sharing his early mistakes and his best advice.

The professional trajectory of recording artist Vic Mensa highlights a critical evolution in the modern Black business landscape: moving past superficial consumer metrics to secure true autonomy through equity, IP control, and community-centered enterprise.

In part 2 of his exclusive conversation with BLACK ENTERPRISE, Mensa gets candid about early financial traps, how to navigate regulated industries, and why true Black wealth extends far beyond consumer spending power.

The questions and Mensa’s answers have been edited for clarity.

BE: Launching your company, ORANJ, moved you into a full-scale production house. How did you build that operational backbone while protecting long-term ownership?

Vic Mensa: Brick by brick, immersing myself in every part of the process—learning about workers’ compensation, insurance, equipment rentals, staffing, pre-production, and post-production. Once I fortified my understanding of the field, I began adding verticals. For example, I’ve always written essays, like my piece for TIME magazine on Palestine and American racism. Now, I run a newsletter vertical to monetize my writing directly rather than just giving the intellectual property away.

BE: As the founder of 93 Boyz, Illinois’ first Black-owned legal cannabis brand, what operational lessons can you pass on to Black founders entering heavily regulated markets?

Mensa: You have to watch out for predatory deals that attempt to dilute Black leadership or ownership and use Black faces merely as figureheads. Always stay conscious of that setup.

Operationally, I highly recommend reading The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding—that book was super valuable for me. Additionally, equity is non-negotiable. As my mentor Dan Pettigrew says, when you get money the first time, things can easily go left. Having been through it before, the goal is to make sure you retain true equity and avoid repeating past mistakes.

BE: How has retaining your intellectual property (IP) changed how you monetize, take risks, and structure deals?

Mensa: At this stage, owning your IP is everything. We’ve been sold a business model where we take upfront capital to cover immediate needs—like paying rent—and forfeit all backend profits. The result is that you rarely see money again.

Coming at this with experience changes the dynamic. Owning your IP allows you to move beyond basic survival, retain long-term value, and maintain control over your creative expression.

BE: Black Enterprise has documented Black economic power for decades. How do you and your generation define real wealth beyond account balances?

Mensa: I’ve been reading Dr. Jared Ball’s book, The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power. He dissects the heavily cited $1 trillion Black spending power statistic, showing how that figure was largely constructed to market products to us, rather than representing capital that generates actual Black wealth—like land, stocks, and tangible assets. That number is built for corporations like Coca-Cola. Real wealth comes from collective organizing to influence policy that protects human rights, alongside the active redistribution of resources and asset ownership.

BE: What is the single biggest money mistake you made early in your career, and what did it teach you about running a business?

Mensa: My biggest mistake was letting reckless percentages go out without proper oversight. Early on, I trusted people too much without understanding my own business. I threw things up in the air, assuming that because I paid someone, they would operate ethically and in my best interest. That is simply not the reality of business. You have to understand your operations inside and out and maintain strict oversight.

BE: What non-negotiable advice do you give young Black creatives who want to transition from being talent to owning their enterprise?

Mensa: Lean into what makes your story yours. In this era, it’s easy to think imitation is salvation, but it’s not. Speaking on what is real to you is the first seed of something great. Furthermore, don’t just sell your labor—build the tool itself. If you have a specialized skill set, utilize current technologies to build platforms that scale your service rather than just remaining a worker within someone else’s structure.