Vince Staples thread

This guy is having an incredible year. Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2 is my favorite mixtape of the year so far, and his debut EP for Def Jam, Hell Can Wait, is tentatively scheduled for a Sept. 23 release.

First single goes for the 1988 jugular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJLfCBBcZAo

And "Hands Up," the follow-up track that leaked today, is really powerful (Def Jam pulled this morning's stream, but an official one should be coming soon):

http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/vince-staples-hands-up

Also I love the story telling on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZIdVsHpCvw&index=7&list=PLhak8UpIKsqU6yJaSdaSZwclm5aLYliQM

I listened to "Blue Suede" like five times in a row one day last week.

yea i like this guy. he came across p smart in that p4k interview piece last week

"Hands Up" is streaming on Spotify; what a track:

http://open.spotify.com/track/1Ajp50IXWne7XVlH1zAktL

"Hands Up" is so fucking righteous

I've liked this guy for a while, but he really leveled up with Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2. He's always been a gifted storyteller about his upbringing and background, but on Shyne he broadened his perspective.

His earlier OF verses are fun though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWOLOrlqFD0

I liked some of his OF verses but always wrote him off as a lesser copy of Earl, a Jesse Eisenberg of sorts to Earl's Michael Cera. Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2, to overextend the analogy, felt like his Social Network moment

does that mean Tyler is Jonah Hill and "Wolf" is his "The Sitter"?

oh thank god, thought i was gonna have to start a Vince Staples thread up in here.

Most interesting rapper, with the greatest potential, since I've heard since Danny Brown hit.

I wish I liked the new singles more than I do - the Shyne Coldchain tapes overshadow them.

loooove that shyne coldchain 2 tape

Hell Can Wait is good but it feels like a half-measure. Feel like it could have been a great album; instead it's a "digital EP."

Love the singles, though. Along with most of Shyne Coldchain 2 this is some of my fav rap of the year

This guy is doing message songs better than just about anybody right now.

aaaand... http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19849-vince-staples-hell-can-wait-ep/

is this EP srsly better than Shyne Coldchain? cause that would be something.

Very different vibe than Shyne Coldchain; much more militant and inflamed; a little less ruminative. It's awesome but in a different way.

I still think it's three songs short of being a complete artistic statement tho. The brevity works, but I want more.

Senorita video is pretty great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OAYMMod9Wo&feature=youtu.be

good song but sampling Future on the hook of a single in 2015 is a weird worst of both worlds move

initial impression: album is a masterpiece

did it leak???

(i plan fully on buying this one but am v excited for this)

how d'you hear it ?

i like this itw :
http://www.thefader.com/2015/06/09/vince-staples-interview-summertime-06

I've got a review copy. Kind of threw me at first, since it's not as singles minded as Hell Can Wait, but damn, he's got some jaw-droppers here, one after another for long stretches. It's absolutely incredible.

oh mannnnnn

Can't wait for this album

I don't know as much as I'd like to about the NBA, but I watched all of this just to hear Vince talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkgJxxSH2Yg

is there stuff that goes even deeper than Hands Up?

nothing is quite as hard as Hands Up, but there are songs that come close and he sustains that intensity for tracks at a time. Impressive that he pulls of a double album, given how brevity-minded his other projects have been

he was good on the nightly show. clever guy.

new one, "get paid" http://vevo.ly/7Nscms

i dig how haunted this sounds

legitimately havent had as much anticipation for an album in a long-ass time

Senorita is dope. what's the concern about sampling Future?

http://www.npr.org/2015/06/21/414701194/first-listen-vince-staples-summertime-06

:D

can't stay up late to listen to the whole thing but went through the first three tracks and wow, norf norf is incredible in particular

Yeah, this album is really something.

this is awesome

someone be sure to bump this thread when Vince makes a misstep ... ain't happened yet

About halfway through the album, pretty great so far. Señorita sounds even better in context.

This is my fav AOTY so far

absolutely

the sound is practically skeletal and almost entirely minor key and that works perfectly the whole time w/o ever growing monotonous

you mean I have to stop listening to Miguel

yes alfred, just for an hour.

wildheart is def also gunning for the #1 spot tbf

it's been an incredible year

Wow. Miguel and Vince Staples arrive in one day. But yeah, this is great - almost too deep to take in. I like it that he's defined his musical aesthetic so clearly that this isn't a double album grab bag of stuff. It's just one dope track after another where I'm mesmerized by his voice. A little like when I first heard Nas.

so this is a good album

"norf norf" is so fucking great

i'll have to stop listening to this to hear Miguel, not the other way around #priorities

if this season of true detective was in compton, "dopeman" would be a perfect theme song, so quietly menacing. it's sort of an interstitial more than a full fledged song but I love it

"Fun!" features additional vocals by E-40

fuck yeah

they already collabed on a (kinda irritating, tbh) song earlier this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iWJT9iUZKA

I don't really know Kenny Beats but I love that VS is sticking with a single producer (or very few) per record, I trust his aesthetic sense.

xp yeah the new one was a bit staid, 40 on a staples song a much more exciting prospect to me atm

im interested in hearing what Kenny has cooked up for Vince, he's a versatile guy who can work in many modes. He's all over the Rico Nasty album, he's done things for TDE, he's capable of doing dirty south things for guys like Key! and YoungBoy. Hard to pin down.

the same guy who made this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D4happ4TQU

made this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWQFpLuOzkY

and this (gonna stop spamming a single artist thread with unrelated embeds now): https://youtu.be/VvsYa9hcFH0

listening now, very good so far. a lot more dynamic, less imposing than big fish theory

beats are great

as far as sub 25 minute 2018 rap albums go: Vince >>> Pusha

New album????

it's just ok, imo

same but i need to give it another listen

seemed a little dispiriting in a way
i was excited because i generally love kenny beats

"dispiriting" has been my general feeling re his last few releases. I don't detect a lot of enjoyment.

ever since he started spouting landlord shit about art his music went bad tbh

landlord shit?

I like this album a lot

Gave this a cursory listen. Beats sound like trap by numbers and he sounds like he's rapping while looking at his phone. But I didn't hate it, will give it more of a chance.

Kenny Beats seems like a very nice guy who mostly makes very boring beats. (Except for The Cave episode w/ Freddie Gibbs but that's down to the Lil Sko sample.)

Really want him to do another album with out there production (for modern rap standards) like on BFT. Really wasn't impressed with the new album besides maybe the first track

This album (Ramona Park Broke My Heart) is really great huh

I like it though I put on Summertime 06 the other day and I forgot how much energy he used to bring. His recent stuff is good but so much more muted.

otm

Everything he's done since Summertime 06 has been a disappointment, of different kids. The tinge of anger that made him fascinating is mostly gone, and his beats are far less interesting.

i like the new album a lot, and respect how he's changed as an artist, but that hell can wait-summertime 06-prima donna era had something special, which he's lost.

xp idk i think the beats on the new one are very well done, if unflashy, especially the dj dahi joints - "dj quik" and "papercuts"

The most interesting things he’s done since Summertime ‘06 are press interviews.

I give every one of these albums (or EPs, or “projects”) a shake. And every time I just can’t and don’t know why I hang in there.

Actually, the 2016 Prima Donna ep is the most concentrated thing he's ever released, and the Andre 3000 appearance is his best in god knows how many years.

why is everyone pretending that big fish theory was bad

I like Big Fish Theory — it’s my son’s favorite Vince Staples album, it has a following. The new one sounded good when he put it on in the car the other day, I haven’t yet given it a full listen. I agree overall that Summertime 06 is his best, I put that on the other week and even the tracks I’d forgotten were good.

the new one is fine and is a fair improvement from the last two which were very slight, but it's not really anything to get excited about like he once was capable of

feels like the tone of each progressive release just gets mellower

new show on netflix & he drew inspiration from roy andersson -

We take a lot of inspiration in Roy Andersson, one of my favorite filmmakers. In his film “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” he has this shot in this restaurant or a cafeteria, where a lot of the people are separated by the pillars and just entering and exiting a frame. Things that are happening in the distance and things that are happening closer to camera, everything matters in the shot, especially when you stay within a wide. So I think operating within a wide sometimes allows you to bring subtle details and nuances to the shot, and the disposition of the people within the bank can speak to their relationships, speak to their experience.

Thanks for reminding me - I want to check this out.

(Sadly the most excited I’ve been about Staples in a good long while)

Binged the show this weekend. The easy read is Atlanta-lite. What am I missing? Been into him since Shyne Coldchain but this just didn’t land. I hope there’s another season.

Dark Times is the first Staples LP since Summertime 06 that is clicking with me all the way through. It’s all working perfectly here

Agreed! Summertime 06 and S/T are his high points and this is definitely in league with those.

prefer this to anything he's done since big fish. he's a great writer, and this is the first time since summertime '06 that his songs are so meticulously crafted. also the first album to take full advantage of his calmer delivery, it never gets sleepy and he never sounds bored, which is an issue i had with ramona park and the self-titled

Looking forward to getting into this. The producers didn't ring a bell, anyone familiar?

Some of his best beats in ages ("Étouffée"0.

I feel like a lot of elements have to be just right for a Staples release to work - he’s got to be in the right zone of writing and spitting, the production has to be on point, etc. A lot of stuff he’s done over the past 11 years has an element or two wrong and it just wrecks the whole thing for me

His flow on “Justin” gives me major A Tribe Called Quest feels

Never knew I needed a NOLA bounce homage from Vince Staples. This is sounding great so far.

re: producers, etouffee is mike hector, who produced god for kendrick, among others, and jay versace, the former internet comedian turned producer who did “smoking on my ex pack” for sza, and whosantoine, who i haven’t heard of but i am sure is great

looking at the rest of the credits, the only other producers i know are the great cardo (got wings), who is behind “radio” (one of my highlights), and michael uzowuru, who has worked with sza and frank ocean, and has several credits on here

Thanks!

cardo's mixtapes with payroll giovanni are so good

The beginning of “Freeman” has haunted me since I first heard it

watching him live on t.v. at the austin city limits fest right now and he's so good. just him and beats on a big stage. like a minimal jazz master solo concert.