vince staples
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Vince Staples, from what can be gathered from interviews and podcast appearances, isn’t a man who enjoys the unwavering intensity of the so-called white gaze, creating sonic soundscapes with a certain demographic in mind. During his set at this year’s Camp Flog Gnaw with Tyler, The Creator at the helm, Vince Staples flipped a crowd participation moment into an opportunity to bark on white fans in attendance.
Vince Staples, who enjoyed a solid 2024 on the creative side with the warm embrace of his eponymously named television series on Netflix and his latest studio album Dark Times, was on hand for the annual Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles, now in its 10th year.
During his set, Staples, 31, paused his set to ask the crowd a particular question.
“Do y’all really like f*ck with that real n*gga sh*t,” Staples asks the crowd, which was comprised of several white fans who responded favorably to the shoutout but what came next was a classic retort from the talented Long Beach rapper and actor.
“A bunch of white people saying they like real n*gga sh*t”” Staples said. “It’s perplexing.”
Staples also called the crowd “stupid motherf*ckers” before launching into the rest of his set.
Vince Staples was one of the many standout acts at Camp Flog Gnaw with Erykah Badu, Action Bronson, Madlib, Sampha, Doechii, ScHoolboy Q, and more, including appearances from Sexyy Red, SZA, and others. There was also a segment of the festival dedicated to the memory of the late, great MF DOOM.
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Source: Netflix / Netflix
If rapping doesn’t work out for him, Vince Staples has a solid acting and screenwriting career in the work. On Thursday (May 30), Netflix revealed it had renewed The Vince Staples Show for a second season.
The Vince Staples Show received critical acclaim upon its release back in February. But like anything involving creators of color, fans were wary after there was no immediate announcement of a second season despite the praise the show received for it’s combination of wit, consciousness and comedy.
Well, now we need not worry.
“The Vince Staples Show is back! The people have spoken and the most riveting, captivating, and polarizing show on Netflix is returning for season 2. Get ready for hijinks that only a mother can love. Thank you, Netflix!,” said the “Norf Norf” rapper in a statement.
Recently, Staples dropped a new album, his last on Def Jam, called Dark Skies.
Hip-Hop Wired spoke to Vince Staples just before his show debuted. One of his favorite episodes is the 2nd, where a bank robbery goes down and he happens to know the guys pulling the jux—the wildly enteratining dissonance is a mark of the show.
“We definitely wanted to do that,” said Vince Staples. “It was intentional because that’s life, you never know what it’s going to throw your way and within these environments, sometimes it can get extremely crazy. But also, we’ve been taught to keep our composure. And if something is normal you don’t understand when it’s abnormal to the rest of the world.
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Vince Staples has always presented himself as a principled individual and remains one of the greatest minds in Hip-Hop, even if his observations rankle some. The Long Beach, Calif. native recently spoke at an event in his hometown and was asked about the ongoing Drake and Kendrick Lamar but his answer was directly aimed on critiquing the music industry.
Vince Staples, 30, was a guest at the first annual Youth Day in the LBC event over the weekend which also featured a town hall with Long Beach Mayor Rex Richard alongside the rapper and actor. Fans in attendance were allowed to ask questions and the fan wanted Staples’ opinion regarding Hip-Hop’s hottest feud.
In his signature deadpan fashion, Staples harkened back to similar thoughts he shared on The Joe Budden Podcast where he tried to explain to the cast why the war between Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole was largely pointless and the only ones to benefit are the labels. Staples’ point was largely dismissed as he refused to engage in zeroing in on the beef and instead sticking to his morals that the industry is in literal shambles.
“That record label just folded all of its independent labels and subsidiaries into each other,” Staples shared of his current record label, Universal Music Group, which he’s been signed to since he was 17. Staples explained that the label hasn’t paid him since 2018.
Staples then explained that the dissolving of the independent labels and subsidiaries also meant that Black folks who have been invested in growing the Hip-Hop and R&B sectors of their labels are either without a job or moved into positions outside their wheelhouse.
“None of them [labels] exist no more. They fired all the heads of the labels and if they didn’t, they turn them into glorified A&Rs. They cut off 50 percent of the people who work in all these departments, most of those people is us, people of color, that come from hip-hop and R&B and these other things, right?” Staples continued.
In a somewhat somber fashion, Staples essentially said that a Hip-Hop beef is the least of his concerns while the industry he’s been a part of as a teenager is crumbling before his eyes.
“So then we getting priced out of our contracts, we getting priced out of our imprints. There are no labels, basically, that are incentivized to sign Black music and it’s happening in front of our eyes,” Staples shared. “While Taylor Swift is fighting for people to be able to have streaming money, n*ggas is on the internet arguing with each other about some rap sh*t. So that’s how I feel about it, honestly.”
Much like his comments on the JBP, Staples’ comments found their way online and fans have reacted to portions of his answer. Some fans also took aim at Staples for, in their view, evoking respectability politics. Staples also caught wind of those who didn’t enjoy his commentary.
We’ve got comments from all sides below.
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Vince Staples has long established himself as not only a talented musician but also one of the wittiest minds in entertainment. Vince Staples is currently basking in the early positive chatter around his new Netflix series, The Vince Staples Show, with some saying this could be the start of an epic series run for the rapper.
Vince Staples, 30, has long been considered one of the brightest minds both in music and other forms of media due to his sharp intellect, command of language, and ability to remain deadpan during the humorous retellings of his life. The Vince Staples Show, in that regard, is a direct look into the mind of Staples, which puts him in a variety of zany situations that he somehow navigates through his mental savvy and the fact that he’s a famous figure.
Kenya Barris of Black-ish fame serves as one of the executive producers for the show alongside Corey Smyth and showrunner Maurice Williams. The writing room gets a boost from Staples himself, Williams as mentioned earlier, Winter Coleman, and Crystal Jenkins.
The Vince Staples Show follows Staples around his hometown “The Beach” which we can safely assume is based in his native Long Beach, Calif. His character is semi-famous but still very connected to street life and adjacently finds Staples in the middle of some surreal moments that only could work in this medium.
Stapes isn’t new to acting as he’s made an appearance on the hit sitcom Abbott Elementary, along with other roles over the years. Fans of Abbott Elementary should get a kick out of Staples’ show during a key moment.
On X, formerly Twitter, Vince Staples had his name trending with fans celebrating the genius of the program while noting that he also is urging folks to demand a second season of the show. Based on this reaction, that appears to be in the bag.
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Source: Hip-Hop Wired / iOne Digital
Vince Staples is multitalented and multifaceted, but you probably won’t ever hear him calling himself a genius or whatever ego-stroking adjective of the moment creatives choose. Instead, the guy who you probably first came to know as the critically acclaimed rapper repping North Long Beach, California,—or maybe as an actor, like the scene-stealing Maurice in Abbott Elementary—is simply, and humbly knocking his creative endeavors out of the park, as is the case with The Vince Staples Show.
The series, whose five-episode season premiered Thursday (Feb. 15), was commissioned back in 2019, before COVID-19 changed history’s trajectory. But while many shows ended up abandoned, Netflix stood steadfast with the series—loosely based on Staples’ everyday life—which includes Kenya Barris (Black-ish) as an executive producer.
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“Covid kind of stopped everything so for us to still be around after Covid when a lot of things got canceled, [that] said a lot about how they felt about the project,” Staples told Hip-Hop Wired. “So we wanted to make sure that we executed, and we executed in a timely manner and did something that was specific and special for the platform. And so many things are on Netflix so we just wanted to make sure that there was no other show like the one we were creating.”
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The Vince Staples Show, which itself can be considered the evolution of his YouTube series, will garner plenty of comparisons. Chappelle’s Show is an easy one, along with Curb Your Enthusiasm or Atlanta. That’s not bad company to keep but it’s Staples’ dry wit and deadpan delivery often seen and heard in his interviews that filter onto his onscreen persona and gives the series a sharper edge and tone that makes it anything but derivative.
In one moment, Staples could be getting the “otherwise qualified Black guy seeking a loan” treatment at the bank, then conversing matter-of-factly with the leader of the bank robbers who happened to be starting the heist when the protagonist was trying to walk out the same building. The crashing of everyday struggle with “is this really f*cking happening right now?” instances, and plenty of hilarious moments, is a staple, no pun, of the series.
“We definitely wanted to do that,” explains Staples, who co-wrote all the episodes with a team of writers that include Maurice Williams and Ian Edelman. “It was intentional because that’s life, you never know what it’s going to throw your way and within these environments, sometimes it can get extremely crazy. But also, we’ve been taught to keep our composure. And if something is normal you don’t understand when it’s abnormal to the rest of the world.
He adds, “That’s something I wanted to make sure the characters felt; when things get crazy to their standards that doesn’t mean it has to be crazy to our standards. And we wanted to make sure we played that fine line of being able to know the environment is outrageous, but not thinking it’s too much for the characters because it is their environment.”
The aforementioned bank episode (Episode 2 titled “Black Business”) features one of Staples’ favorite scenes, and for good reason. “I think it was shot really well. I think the dialogue was very unique and specific, and it was something I think people aren’t going to be expecting to come from me, or to come from the show. So I’m actually very happy we were able to pull that one off.”
The episode is when The Vince Staples Show really finds its rhythm and is destined to become a fan favorite. One particular line from Staples that resonates is when he waxes philosophic on dealing with redlining, gaslighting and gatekeeping—just several realities even the most upwardly mobile people of color deal with inevitably.
“The line is just typical to what we deal with within these communities,” says Staples. “It never goes away and I think that was an important part of this show. To showcase that a lot of the issues that we have as people, as Black people, as Black people from these environments; they’re not gonna go away just because you get a little bit more money because the systems are so deeply rooted in the structure, in the fabric of this world, of this culture, everything. It was definitely something that you still feel and something that I try to string throughout the episodes.”
Vince Staples keeping it cool as everyday life in North Long Beach, whether blatantly or subtly, goes off the rails? Definitely on brand.
The Vince Staples Show is streaming right now on Netflix.
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Vince Staples shouldn’t need an introduction to most readers of this space, considering the potency and ingenuity of his musical career. The Long Beach, Calif. native is now entering a new phase via a new television series, The Vince Staples Show, which will debut next month.
On Wednesday (Jan. 17), Netflix shared the official trailer for The Vince Staples Show, starring Staples in the lead role with Kenya Barris (Black-ish, Girls Trip) as an executive producer.
According to Netflix, the show centers on Staples but it isn’t clear from the early synopsis which version of the rapper and now actor we’re witnessing. What viewers should expect is Staples’ usual deadpan and biting humor and intelligent writing.
In the clip, Staples returns to his home and romantic partner to unwind after a long day. When asked about his travels, Staples neglects to share all of the several zany things that happened to him, including being involved in the middle of a bank robbery and duking it out at the carnival.
Created by Staples, Ian Edelman, and Maurice Williams, the show is said to be a “limited series of satirical tales” so we can expect some over-the-top visuals and storytelling for sure. If you’ve bore witness to a Staples interview, you’ll understand what we mean.
The Vince Staples Show is executive produced by Staples, Kenya Barris for Khalabo Ink Society, Ian Edelman, Maurice Williams, Corey Smyth, and William Stefan Smith.
The show makes its official debut on Feb. 14, 2024. Check out the trailer below.
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Photo: Netflix
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