As the year comes to a close, I wanted to look back on some of my favorite albums of the year and break down why I think they are so great. The first album is Vince Staples’s self-titled album.
I got into Vince Staples with the release of Big Fish Theory in 2017. The album saw him taking his traditional West Coast Hip-Hop and Hyphy style and meshing it with Deconstructed Club, Garage, and EDM with help from producers like Flume, SOPHIE, and Jimmy Edgar. Towards the end of 2018, Vince came back with FM! a radio-based concept album which included skits and interludes from the Big Boy’s Neighborhood radio show to help build the atmosphere around the album. In 2019, Vince began teasing his new album The Vince Staples Show which saw him release three singles: “So What? (Episode 01)”, “Sheet Music (Episode 02)”, and “Hell Bound (Ad 01)”. The general reception on these songs saw them as uncreative and boring, so Vince quietly swept the project under the rug. Two years later, Vince released Vince Staples entirely produced by Kenny Beats who had a handful of tracks on FM! as well as making a name for himself on projects like Denzel Curry’s Unlocked, and his The Cave bi-weekly YouTube series.
By withholding the bass or Big Boy’s radio show for the self-titled project, Vince Staples lets his lyrics and storytelling stand alone at the forefront untouched to create his most open and sentimental album yet. Compared to his standard bass-heavy trap beats, Kenny Beats instead creates stripped-back and minimalist instrumentals to aid Vince Staples’ mellow performance.
The album opens with “ARE YOU WITH THAT”. Vince gives a relaxed melodic performance where he brings his childhood and how he had grown up thinking being a part of gang violence seemed cool until actually realizing the downsides and the tragedy that comes with it. In the second verse, he goes on how sometimes he misses his time living that lifestyle, but he gets brought back to reality when he’s reminded of all of his friends who died from the violence and drugs. The song ends with an uncredited outro by Vonnie D, another artist from Long Beach and a good friend of Vince’s.
The song transitions perfectly into “LAW OF AVERAGES” which was the first single of the project. The song opens with vocals from producer Reske who said on Reddit that he “recorded it years back… it got to Kenny beats and the rest is history”. The performance by Reske is atmospheric and beautiful with Kenny Beats adding some additional instrumentation on top. On the track, Vince talks about the baggage and problems that come with where he’s from. He seems more reflective on the past than previous works and is looking back on the life he lived.
On “SUNDOWN TOWN”, Vince brings up his family’s past of not having money to pay rent and having to move around to find a place to stay constantly. The opening line of “I can die tonight, so today, I’m finna go get paid” stuck with me since he mentions wanting to have money to take care of his family and he doesn’t know when that money will end, so he’ll do whatever to get paid. Verse two talks more of the present day where he knows that the violence is ceaseless because he sees that once another person dies on the streets, the violence will start back up. He also mentions his anxiety and paranoia around fans and others from the world he grew up in knowing it’s hard to trust the people around him. The instrumentation is a pitched-up soulful sample and is a fantastic track.
“THE SHINING” begins with a somber glimmering piano before Vince discusses his fear of dying. He says “I could be gone in a blink, I don’t wanna leave” referring back to the album’s themes of isolation and loss. He also mentions how he doesn’t want to move out of Long Beach because he doesn’t want to be seen as a sellout in a world where once artists make it big they try to move out to a better environment while Vince feels too involved with his community to leave.
“TAKING TRIPS” is probably my favorite instrumental from the entire album with its production handled by Kenny Beats and Monte Booker who is known for his glitchy and spacey OP-1 styled production. Sampling The Utopian Concept’s song “Days May Come, Days May Go”, the song’s melodic strings allow for a very psychedelic and dizzying feeling to track like a dark and twisted lullaby. In the song, Vince brings up his infidelity and his inability to keep a relationship due to the women only wanting to date him for his money. He also discusses his trust issues and having to feel like he can’t even fully relax and he has to always keep one eye open. The ending movie sample looks into how the right decision might be overlooked to fit into the gang or be seen as cool.
“THE APPLE & THE TREE” interlude kicks off the second half of the album. The brief interlude samples Vince’s mother about how she lied on the witness stand to protect her husband during his trial. The title of the track refers to the idiom of how the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree similar to how Vince’s actions are not too different from his mother’s.
“TAKE ME HOME” with Fousheé (the only featured artist on the album) utilizes the same sample as “THE APPLE & THE TREE” continuing the themes from the interlude. “TAKE ME HOME” is a track where Vince talks about his struggles in a relationship. He mentions the problems they shared back and forth as well as the constant fighting and unhappiness that came with the relationship. Fousheé’s hook references the “There’s no place like home” line from Wizard of Oz. She does a fantastic job as the only feature on the album and I’ve been enjoying her solo work as well as her collaborations with Pink Siifu and other abstract hip-hop artists.
“LIL FADE” is one of the two more aggressive songs on the relatively melancholic album. The song talks about his days when he was a youth and the violence that surrounded him. The song transitions into the second interlude “LAKEWOOD MALL”. “LAKEWOOD MALL” tells the story about Vince has always thought ahead of the situations he’s been put in and has put safety first in front of all other things. Even with a group of friends, Vince still shares his independence which in this situation allowed him to escape the violence that his friends got caught in. The phone call interlude over the soulful “Bad Day” by Guitar Red is stunning, and as a person who’s indifferent to interludes, I think the two on this project helped the flow of the album and reinforced the themes discussed throughout.
The album closes with “MHM” the second “banger” on the album while still containing the same minimalist production style followed throughout the album. The eeriness throughout the song helps conclude the dark themes followed throughout the album. Vince brings up the goal to just stay alive at the end of the day is the hardest part of growing up in his area.
Like I said at the beginning of this review, Big Fish Theory was a bass-heavy dance album. FM! was a radio concept album. When you strip those unique elements back, you realize Vince Staples has been saying the same thing on each project, and it is truthfully heart-wrenching. I think that’s why his self-titled album is so special because there is nothing to fill the void of his grief. By naming the album his own name, he’s telling the world that he’s taking the stage with no backing band or any opening acts. It’s a one-man band who shares his fears and anxiety more consciously and concisely than ever before.
Loading ...