Vince Staples
Ahead of its release, Vince Staples told Apple Music\'s Zane Lowe that his eponymous album was a more personal work than those that came before. The Long Beach rapper has never shied away from bringing the fullness of his personality to his music—it\'s what makes him such a consistently entertaining listen—but *Vince Staples*, aided by Kenny Beats, who produced the project, is more clear-eyed than ever. Opener “ARE YOU WITH THAT?” is immediate: “Whenever I miss those days/Visit my Crips that lay/Under the ground, runnin\' around, we was them kids that played/All in the street, followin\' leads of n\*\*\*as who lost they ways,” he muses in the second verse, assessing the misguided aspirations that marked his childhood even as the threat of violence and death loomed. It\'s not that Staples hasn\'t broached these topics before—it\'s that he\'s rarely been this explicit regarding his own feelings about them. His sharp matter-of-factness and acerbic humor have often masked criticism in piercing barbs and commentary in unflinching bravado. Here, he\'s direct. The songs, like a series of vignettes that don\'t even reach the three-minute mark, feel intimately autobiographical. “SUNDOWN TOWN” reflects on the distrustful mentality that comes with taking losses and having the rug pulled out from under you one too many times (“When I see my fans, I\'m too paranoid to shake their hands”); “TAKE ME HOME” illuminates how the pull of the past, of “home,” can still linger even after you\'ve escaped it (“Been all across this atlas but keep coming back to this place \'cause it trapped us”). Some might call this an album of maturation, but it ultimately seems more like an invitation—Staples finally allowing his fans to know him just a bit more.
Produced entirely by Kenny Beats, the album’s reserved musical approach magnifies the blunt scene-setting Vince has used to build his name over the last decade.
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Teaming up with producer Kenny Beats, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples pilots a shadowy world with forlorn determination on 'Vince Staples'.
Turning inward on his most introspective outing to date, rapper Vince Staples delivers another potent burst of lyrical storytelling on his self-titled fourth effort.
Since he first stepped onto the scene, Vince Staples' music has been characterized by its abrasive and uncompromising aspects. Whether the j...
Vince Staples has never fit neatly into the hip-hop world. Uncompromisingly outside the mainstream, especially in a world pulled more and more towards
The California rapper’s most accessible album yet captures the tenderness at play within the clammy tensions of LA
As a pure platform for Vince Staples himself, his self-titled record works a charm; not a radical move for the rapper, but it is a smart one
Despite less showy production, Vince Staples’s fourth album makes a bone-chilling impression. Read our review of ‘Vince Staples.’
With his latest album, Vince Staples mines an artistic, existential, and notably fertile limbo. It's his most reflective and sober perspective to date.
Vince Staples by Vince Staples album review by Brody Kenny. The artist/rapper's full-length comes out on July 9th, via Motown/Blacksmith
The Long Beach MC has repeatedly shunned fame – and this spectral take on his region’s G-funk, paired with conversational lyrics, deepens his outsider appeal