Vic Mensa can’t live without the Voice Memos app
The most telling detail is that a rapper with access to any studio on earth still treats the default iPhone voice recorder as his primary creative tool. The reason is practical: ideas show up at inconvenient times, and the fastest way to capture them is the app that's already on your phone.
I'd want to know how he manages the pile of recordings, because that's where the system usually breaks down. A thousand unlabeled memos is a graveyard of half-formed hooks. If he's been relying on this for years, there has to be some method, even if it's just ruthless pruning.
The bigger point is that creative tools don't have to be sophisticated to be effective. A voice memo captures the moment before self-consciousness kicks in, and that raw quality is often closer to the actual idea than anything recorded in a treated booth. It's a good reminder that the barrier to making art is lower than most people think.