In the typical tortoise meets hare scenario, it’s always fare to beware of the unassuming. In this case, the Rap game – one that’s so consumed by appearance and social status – is the hare. Meanwhile, the proverbial tortoise is rapper Vince Staples.
Cultural old heads often complain about the state of the culture, and while we won’t follow suit, we do agree that conditions are very different these days. But every so often, there’s a newcomer who channels the spirit of the golden era without mirroring the sound. However, this is where the “unassuming” description takes precedent. Calm, but stern, the baby faced wordsmith doesn’t have a so-called rapper’s persona, nor does he care to. He also doesn’t look like he’s engaged in any street activity, but you’re free to employ some due diligence in the Long Beach, Calif. native’s hood to double check that assumption.
The MC prides himself on authentic presentations during an era when listeners are fine with knowing that their favorite rappers kick folklore. In that lies the x-factor in Staples’ overall appeal, and that’s without mentioning that the 20-year old can rap his a** off.
Who: Born Vince Staples (yes, that’s his real name), the West Coast spitter calls Long Beach home. It’s the city that bred him both in the streets and as a MC.
Credentials: A new mixtape each year since 2011 has been Staple’s gift to the fans. But after a solid 2013 that included the Stolen Youth mixtape, which Mac Miller produced under the guise of Larry Fisherman, and some stellar guest appearances on Earl Sweatshirt’s Doris LP, he quietly signed to Def Jam Records. His Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2 mixtape arrived in March.
Fun Fact: Staples once admitted that he didn’t want his now good friends, Odd Future, to know about his street ties.
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Photo: YouTube
Hip-Hop Wired: Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2 is a nuanced piece of work, but we noticed that high school is a central topic on the project. Why is that?
Vince Staples: I feel like I’m trying to chronicle something like kind of in a time leading up to whenever we do an album or anything big like that; just telling the story of how certain things happened. And I’m still in that time space. I ain’t really pass that yet, you know what I mean? As far as that series goes, that’s the position that we’re in right now. I haven’t really finished telling that part of the story. As soon as I’m done telling that story, it’ll be over, which will be relatively soon. I feel like everything should be in order, just to let the listener gauge where I’m coming from.
HHW: A lot of your rhymes contextualize your thoughts on Black culture. Who inspired those thoughts?
Vince Staples: My grandparents were real big on that growing up, and my mom. My grandfather from Haiti. My grandmother is from the Dominican Republic, like them type of areas. Coming to LA from them places – well, moving to Louisiana, because that’s the closest area to that part of the world – they moved from Louisiana to out here dealing a lot of the sh*t that they had to deal with. It was always something that they put in our heads, just so n***as would be aware of what was going to happen to them growing up.
I was never not aware of how people looked at me growing up, and that was actually something that stuck with me throughout my whole life. I still think like that, [but] it’s not as bad as it was when I was younger, because a lot of that sh*t comes from a negative place. Even in the positive, I still be feeling a certain way. I know what it is and what it ain’t when it comes to sh*t like that.
HHW: Do you read up on folks you mentioned on the project like Bunchy Carter, etc.?
Vince Staples: It’s just something that’s always been in my life. It’s always been around. It’s pretty much all my family. I took a class on it when I was in Atlanta during those six months. Besides that, it’s not something that I went too far into. When you get older, you experience things that make you realize what your parents were saying. It’s pretty much that more than everything.
HHW: How different was it growing up in Long Beach as compared to Los Angeles?
Vince Staples: LA different. LA is nothing like Long Beach. If you ask anybody from the LA area, they’ll tell you that Long Beach is a completely different world. Whether it comes to stupid street sh*t or even regular sh*t, it’s not even slightly similar. We’re really in our own so to say, and are alien to a lot of extra problems that nobody else had to deal with. Everybody knew each other growing up. It’s a small place and you can’t really be running. We got a very strong police presence, but we still got a really high crime rate. It’s just a lot of things that goes into what’s going on out here that [outside] people really don’t gotta deal with.
HHW: Speaking of your upbringing, you talk about how your dad laced you with new Jordans through crime, but at the same time you also mentioned being dead broke. What’s the disconnect between those parts of your life?
Vince Staples: I was a young kid when my dad was really going to jail. When I was born my dad was in jail. But my dad stopped going to jail eventually – he stopped getting real time – but also at that time, he stopped f**king with my moms, so I didn’t see my dad for a very long time.
HHW: So that’s when times got rough?
Vince Staples: I was like 16 or 17 with no f**king money. We wore uniforms in middle school, so in middle school, I didn’t know we were broke. I knew we didn’t have money like that, but I thought we were regular. When it came time for high school, that’s when I knew we ain’t have sh*t.
HHW: You don’t seem like the type to go the major label route. What made you make that decision?
Vince Staples: I needed that bread to provide for my family. I don’t do this rap sh*t for me; I don’t particularly care that much. I didn’t grow up like, ‘ Yeah, I’m going to be a rapper when I grow up.’ It just kind of happened. And I’m thankful for the way it did happen. Don’t get me wrong, but that’s nothing I strived to be when I was younger.
I had to take care of my mother, and they came to me with a situation where they weren’t ganking me out of my money, ganking me out of my publishing or it wasn’t a boo-boo 360 [deal] situation that everybody is getting. It worked out for the best. As far as signing to Def Jam, they had a lot of history in what they were doing. That played a very large part in it. Just knowing that they knew what they were doing was very important to me, because I really didn’t know what I was doing.
HHW: How have your thoughts on being in the streets gang banging changed since you started taking Rap seriously?
Vince Staples: I won’t frankly say that I don’t care about it no more, because I really, really do. It’s just that I understand what it is and what it’s not right now. My priorities are different. I don’t really care about going out and trying to kill nobody no more, because that’s really what it’s about after you’ve been doing it for so long.
HHW: How do you preserve your authenticity in an industry full of fakes?
Vince Staples: I’m not going to let nothing change who the f*ck I am. It ain’t that big of a deal to me. If it work, it work; if it don’t, it don’t. Period.
HHW: You’re pretty present on Twitter. Do you pay attention to any of the digital hate?
Vince Staples: Nah, I don’t really give a f**k about what anybody has to say. Half the people on Twitter I can beat up, so I don’t care about none of that sh*t.
HHW: What are your thoughts on the West finally getting its just due?
Vince Staples: It should have been happening. It’s about time. We’re the main reason why rap is like it is now. N***a really wasn’t trying to be hard like that before our sh*t came out. I feel like we play a large part in it, and we really don’t get that much credit for it. But as of now, it’s getting a lot better than it was.
We got a lot more authenticity than we ever had. We had big problem with a lot of busters trying to pretend like they was doing some sh*t – to the point that n***as think to have any kind of pass you gotta be baggy jean, Levis, white t-shirt type n***a, which ain’t true at all. If you been in these streets, you know it comes in every form; you don’t know who’s who. It’s not about who you are or how you look, it’s about your circumstances.
Music is coming to a point where you have to understand that a little more. I feel like because of that, it’s gonna actually help the people who are actually in those problems, because they’re going to seeing it for what it is.
HHW: When it’s all said in done, what legacy do you want Vince Staples to leave behind?
Vince Staples: I’m trying to get it to the point where I can really change a person’s life focus. That’s really when you’re hard – when you’re the best. The fact Tupac really had n***as on some other sh*t. The fact Biggie really changed the way n***as rapped. There was no champagne and platinum, and all that bullsh*t – it was there, but it really wasn’t on that large scale until Biggie. That’s the reason those names are up there, because they affected the way people looked at life and lived their life.
I’m trying to be one of them. I’m trying to be somebody who can actually make somebody look at life in a different light. I can give a f**k about everything else they can keep. All the other stuff… I just wanna be able to support my family and change someone’s outlook on life, because that outlook is important. Outlooks done killed n***as before.
Essentials:
Earl Sweatshirt ft. Vince Staples & Casey Veggies – “Hive”
Vince Staples – “Guns & Roses” (Prod. By Mac Miller)
