Vic Mensa is currently working on his full-length debut Traffic. Elaborating on the project in an interview with Clash, the Chicago rapper revealed that the record will feature a collaboration with Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, on a track sampling the bridge from Pinkerton's "The Good Life." According to Clash, Cuomo invited him to a studio session, heard the track, and decided to add some new vocals. Mike Dean, TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, Illangelo, and John Hill all lent production to the record. In February, Mensa dropped a new track, "Danger," and premiered "16 Shots" at a rally in Flint, Michigan.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mensa talked about his influences. "The things that push me, and motivate me, are The Smiths and Morrissey, fucking Jay-Z’s The Blueprint," he said. "That’s the type of shit I’m putting myself next to in the levels of artistry that I’m trying to achieve - in my own way.” He also called Nirvana his "favorite band." (He has a Nirvana tattoo.)

He also recalled a bizarre, extended meeting with Puff Daddy in Los Angeles, which saw them listening to D'Angelo and the Vanguard's Black Messiah, hanging out in his "candy room," and staging an intoxicated footrace against Puff down the halls of the mogul's house:

He had one of his people bringing us so many shots of DeLéon Tequila. And he had this crazy candy room in his house—we were going through these gigantic gumball machines. He had a bag of joints rolled up, like a gallon ziplock bag of joints rolled up. I was just faded as fuck in Diddy’s house and I raced him down his hallway. Diddy is one of the most turnt up, but also incredibly intelligent, knowledgeable, insightful, powerful and inspiring people I’ve met. It was a stunt for me just because I come from being a huge student of this game. I was racing Diddy down his hallway—I was kind of fucked up, I think he might have beat me, which is crazy because I’m fucking fast as shit. No, I beat Diddy in the race down his hallway. That’s what happened!

Watch Vic Mensa perform "U Mad" at Pitchfork Music Festival 2015: