Artist: Vince Staples

Album: Vince Staples

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Background:

Vince Staples is a young rapper from North Long Beach California. His previous works include Summertime ’06, Big Fish Theory, and FM! Vince’s early life was spent as a bit of an outsider because, while his father ran drugs, Vince remained straight laced. He was determined to stick to a good path. Vince grew up with next to nothing and dealt with crime and poverty for most of his youth. Once in high school, Vince moved around constantly and did what was needed to survive. This ended up shaping him into the tired, ethereal artist we know and love. On his self-titled album, Vince looks into himself and the place he was raised and reflects on how much of himself comes from his youth. He also muses on his fame and how despite it all, he remains the same struggling boy from North Long Beach.

Review:

My first exposure to Vince Staples was his feature on Humanz by the Gorillaz. His appearance on the opening track, Ascension, laid the groundwork for the party at the end of the world theme that carried that album. I started looking into the rest of his discography not long after and thoroughly enjoyed everything I heard. Vince’s dark sense of humor entertained me bar by bar and kept me hooked through every album. However, none of his albums would hit me quite like his self-titled this year.

I did not have high expectations going into this album. I saw that it was another short album by Vince at only 22 minutes and 8 tracks if you cut out the two interludes. However, what I found was my favorite album from Vince to date and one of my favorite albums of 2021.

I heard the album in what I would consider the perfect setting, a gloomy early morning on my way to my day job. Opening with ARE YOU WITH THAT?, the album immediately hooked me. Vince sounds so exhausted and fed up on this thing and I love it. The opener sees Vince look back with a melancholic nostalgia on the horrors of his youth. He was a child playing in the street as gangbangers shot and killed people he knew. Still, despite these horrors, Vince seems to look back on his neighborhood with a fondness. He still misses his youth.

Next up is the lead single off this album, LAW OF AVERAGES and this is where we first see Vince’s resentment toward his fame. The chorus shows Vince’s distaste for the wealthy women who now flock around him. He’d rather have a girl from nothing who loves him for him than a rich girl with tons of baggage who likes him for his cash. Vince also puts on a braggadocious face as he compares him self to Lil Wayne ad Hurricane Carter against the fake thugs who are trying to be Muhammad Ali.

SUNDOWN TOWN sees Vince dive deeper into the story of his childhood to great effect, painting a picture of he and his siblings scavenging for food as the neighborhood turned into a free-for-all as night approached. Vince also admits that his childhood caused him serious long-lasting trauma. He fears shaking the hands of his fans because he learned at a young age to never trust a stranger, because it might mean your life.

THE SHINING is a simple but effective use of Vince’s storytelling abilities. The thesis of this song is straightforward, you either die broke, or keep pushing and mourn the losses of those you’ll have to lose along the way. In the saddest way possible, Vince is saying that he made his omlette, and had to break quite a few eggs along the way.

I see TAKING TRIPS as a sort of recap of the themes up to this point. Vince seems to be looking back on a slightly later time in his life cruising with his friends and seeing the horrors around him, but by now he is a bit more jaded and takes note of the fact that it no longer phases him. He comments much more casually here that he knows women are often only with him for the money, but he seems to care less now then on LAW OF AVERAGES, like it is a fact of life that he has to deal with.

Taking an even bigger step back, THE APPLE & THE TREE is the first of two interludes, and this one samples a voicemail from Vince’s mother. It shows that she too has grown used to the effects of the place they live. His mom admits to lying on the witness stand, going out looking for his father’s mistresses, and carrying a gun to the church choir services. The title of this song suggests that Vince and his mother share a similar trait in their resentment of their hometown, but also an ability to laugh off the struggles and adapt to the harshness of their environment in order to survive. I enjoy this interlude as someone who is also close with my mother. My father passed away when I was young, and I can relate to the struggles a mother faces when left to raise the family on her own. I can also relate to the feeling of having to grow up early and take responsibility for your family when no one else can.

On TAKE ME HOME, Vince falls even deeper into darkness, reflecting on the things he had to do as a young man to keep his family alive. He tells the listener that these events still haunt him. That often-petty squabbles would turn to beef which would turn to someone in the ground. He couldn’t trust anyone around him because he never knew who might snitch to the police and this caused him to feel totally alone. This fact is something he touches on with his quick reference to the Kid Cudi song Mr. Solo Dolo. Still, the name of the song implies that Vince does still carry some fondness for him home, likely both the physical home he grew up in, and the family unit that surrounded and supported him as he struggled to help keep them fed.

To me, LIL FADE represents the tough face Vince had to put on to survive. Unlike the typical humorous Vince, we are used to, we see a scarred man of the streets who isn’t afraid to hurt people to get what he wants. The braggadocio is on full display here as Vince talks himself up and becomes the full-of-himself thug that he often parodies and mocks in his daily life. This likely shows why Vince doesn’t take these men seriously, he was once one himself. He knows the game and refuses to play it anymore.

The second and final interlude, LAKEWOOD MALL, is a story from a man about a time that he ditched his gun and split. That same night two men were allegedly killed with the same gun. He uses this as an opportunity to teach a life lesson, you have to separate yourself from the bullshit. Yu can’t let yourself get dragged into the dogfight because you will get killed.

Vince brings the record home with MHM, an upbeat trappier beat that sees Vince look back on his past with confidence. He knows where he came from and has nothing to be ashamed of. He owns his history and uses it to rise above. The title shows a bemused understanding of his surroundings and his ability to deal with anything life throws at him.

This album is an absolute masterwork of storytelling. It feels less like an album and more like a short film about where Vince came from. The album’s title is no accident. This piece of music is Vince through and through. Where Vince came from is a huge part of who he is. His childhood informed his music, which makes him successful. Without it he wouldn’t be Vince Staples.

Discussion Questions:

· Is this Vince’s best album to date, or do you have another favorite?

· Do you think albums this short have a place in the vast sea of lengthy albums in the genre?

· How do the places rappers come from inform who they are as artists?

· Do you prefer this more serious side of Vince, or his more humorous origins?