Vince Staples (2018)

One Liner: Great flow from an odd rapper with critical love

Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop
Home: Norf Norf (North Side Long Beach, California)

Poster Position: 8-ish (added late)
Day: Sunday at 6:00
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: These ACL people, man.  They give you something, and then they take something away.  I saw that Staples was added, and thought, oh, cool, that guy is legit.  That will be fun.  And he's Weekend Two only!  I finally get a win!  And then I see that they also announced Nelly for Weekend One only.  Ratfarts.  I'd want to see Nelly over Staples in a heartbeat.  Not even a question, man.

But, since this is the reality I must live with, know that Staples is legit good.  He came up with the weirdos in Odd Future, but jumped out on his own not long after those guys first got popular with their mixtapes.  He was born in Compton, and then moved to North Side Long Beach, where he bounced around to a bunch of high schools (and apparently got tangled up in gang lifestyle).  His top hit references his home, and created some weird controversy that I'll get to in a bit.  70.3 million streams.

First off, that ominous, creeping beat is sick.  Then, the flow over the top is salty as hell.  Big fan of that song.  

So, stupid controversy.  You love stupid controversy, right?  Back in 2016, when "Norf Norf" was becoming a hit and radios were playing it in some sections of the country, a "Christian Mother" went off on an 11 minute rant about the tune, which went viral.  (You need to go down to the Soundcloud link in that story, where someone interposed her reading of the lyrics over the top of the beat, because its awesome).  So, people jumped out on this viral video, on both sides, condemning Staples' rap or ridiculing this crazy woman.  And Staples did something very cool, he came to her defense, telling people it was not cool to make fun of the lady for her opinions or religion.  He also corrects her misinterpretation of the song, but I very much appreciate a thinking response to the issue.  He could have just clowned her and satisfied his fans, so I dig it.

Staples was also added to the ACL lineup after the fact in 2015.  I reviewed him then as well, so I'm not going to dive back into 2014's Hell Can Wait or 2015's Summertime '06 (which is his best album as far as I am concerned, and where you can find "Norf Norf").  We'll concentrate on the newer stuff.

In 2016, Staples released an EP called Prima Donna.   The EP starts off with a messed up intro of Staples singing "This Little Light of Mine" before a gunshot cuts him off, and then segways straight into the Andre-3000 sampling start of "War Ready," which bangs a pretty tough ass track over a basic click/clack/thump beat.  I can't unpack all of these lyrics, but it sure sounds like this is the future battle anthem of the Black Lives Matter army.
"Heaven, Hell, free or jail, same shit
County jail bus, slave ship, same shit
A wise man once said that a black man better off dead
So I'm, war ready."
The rest of the album doesn't get much lighter, even if the beats do get a little more buoyant and excited.  I especially like the sound on "Prima Donna," which also features A$AP Rocky and this great, bouncing, bass heavy beat.  That is the most streamed one on this EP, at 8.6 million streams.

9.5 minute video for a 3 minute song - ah because its not just for that song.  The EP is also called Prima Donna, so this video features snippets of the different songs.  Go to about 5:00 for a taste of the song "Prima Donna."  Freaky ass video on some Shining shit.  Criminy.
"Pimp Hand" is also a tight beat.  Speaking of Andre 3000, "Smile" sounds a lot like Andre's rap delivery.  Its a good disc.

Then, in 2017, Staples released Big Fish Theory, which was on all the album of the year hype lists.  I tried it out at the time, and just wasn't that enamored with it.  I called it a schizo album.  

In some parts, the beats are good and the rhymes are tight.  In other parts, the beats are lame and the lyrics follow suit.  Like one of the top tracks is "Yeah Right," which has this kind of annoying half-EDM/half-trap beat thing, with pretty weak raps by Staples that includes an sung interlude by some unnamed lady, but then Kendrick Lamar comes in and lays down a good verse.  That track is followed up by "Homage," which is just too much - like it tries to be chill but also hyped at the same time, and it just makes me want to get off the ride.  The opening track, "Crabs in a Bucket" is likewise weird stuff, reminds me of The Streets from 20 years ago.  
But then "BagBak" comes along with an aggressive, skittering beat and some intelligent lyrics about what it will take to get Vince involved in politics and voting.  And he tells the 1% to suck a dick.  So maybe intelligent isn't the right word for this one.  Whatever, it sounds cool and I'm down with telling the government to bite a pole.  Here is the top track, the second one on the album, called "Big Fish," with 46.9 million streams.

Good beat, good lyricism (I like the bit about how he shoulda been dead broke, shoulda been chalked out), and the video is simply cool.  Now I want to know if he ever got rescued.  And if he didn't was he able to punch those weird goldfish with mega fins into submission?  A few good tracks on this album, but I don't get the love for it as a whole.

So, the question is whether I would want to go see pop Mega-Star-ness in Shawn Mendes, or give this show a chance to see if he does enough of the good tunes for me to buy in.  I don't honestly know the answer.  I'll probably leave it up to my buddy.