{"id":25579,"date":"2021-07-26T14:11:06","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T21:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000021361"},"modified":"2021-07-26T14:43:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T21:43:01","slug":"vince-staples-king-of-the-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/local-music\/vince-staples-king-of-the-beach","title":{"rendered":"Vince Staples: King of the Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFind out. Know the city mine now. Get some other s–t to lie about.<\/i>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a chest-thumping line from Vince Staples\u2019 new eponymously titled album, and it\u2019s as true as it is boastful. Staples\u2019 recently released album, his fourth, is the highest-charting project from a Long Beach artist in six years. It was the top rap album last week on Billboard\u2019s rap chart<\/a>, it was the top Billboard debut album<\/a> in the week it came out, and it had a global No. 1 streaming debut<\/a> on Spotify.<\/p>\n

With every song on the new project getting over one million streams on Spotify already, as well as Staples\u2019 NPR Tiny Desk Concert from last Friday already pushing 300,000 views on YouTube, it\u2019s no wonder the rapper wryly guaranteed in a recent radio interview that he\u2019s \u201cdefinitely\u201d one of the top 5,000 rappers of all time.<\/p>\n

“Vince Staples,” released by Motown Records, feels like a culmination of the 28-year-old rapper\u2019s career to this point. It’s\u00a0 laced with the same paranoia and depression that has hovered over his previous albums, but there\u2019s a cynicism that runs deeper this time around.<\/p>\n

Previous projects from Staples have used summer in Long Beach as a reference point\u2014his debut “Summertime 06” and his most recent project, “FM!,” especially. But while “FM!” featured somewhat bouncier takes on the city\u2019s most popular season (including tracks \u201cFeels Like Summer\u201d and \u201cFun!\u201d), the new album is more pessimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate July,\u201d he raps on \u201cTaking Trips.\u201d \u201cCrime is high, the summer sucks. Can\u2019t even hit the beach without my heat it\u2019s in my trunks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a far cry from famous Long Beach summer anthems like War’s “Summer,” the Dove Shack\u2019s \u201cSummertime in the LBC\u201d or Sublime\u2019s \u201cSummertime.\u201d That\u2019s the difference between Staples and most other rappers, whether they\u2019re from Long Beach or anywhere else. His songs often offer a window into the double helix of exhilaration and terror that come with gang life and gun violence\u2014he\u2019s writing about Tony Soprano on a therapist\u2019s couch, not Tony Montana in the club.<\/p>\n

The album also features the usual sprinkles of Long Beach flavor. There\u2019s a spoken word track called “Lakewood Mall,” references to the Church\u2019s Chicken at South and Cherry, and plenty of other North Long Beach geography mapped over Kenny Beats\u2019 restrained production.<\/p>\n

Despite the danger and suspicion Staples describes feeling around every corner in Long Beach, he also says he\u2019s following the path least taken for the city\u2019s long roster of rap stars\u2014the path that stays in the city. Unlike other rappers, he\u2019s often said he\u2019s not trying to make it out of Long Beach. On “The Shining,” he raps, \u201cAsked when Imma move to Malibu or Calabasas\u2014I can\u2019t never do it, I\u2019m too active.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sentiment he\u2019s discussed before, including in an April interview in GQ<\/a>, where he said, \u201cIn a perfect world, more than anything musically or more than anything creatively, my goal in life is to be able to live in Long Beach peacefully. And for everybody else to be able to live in Long Beach peacefully. That means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the optimism of Staples the philanthropic Long Beach resident collides with the cynicism of Staples the rapper is on the street, in real life\u2014in a city that\u2019s seen a huge jump in shootings<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

Despite the city\u2019s flaws and real-life dangers, Staples is committed to it. He continues to be Long Beach\u2019s best writer about gang life or gun violence, in any medium. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s ours, and I\u2019m glad he\u2019s here to stay. I’m not gonna lie about it: The city’s his.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staples’ songs often offer a window into the double helix of exhilaration and terror that come with gang life and gun violence\u2014he\u2019s writing about Tony Soprano on a therapist\u2019s couch, not Tony Montana in the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":71654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9412],"tags":[237],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[22230],"class_list":["post-25579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-music","tag-vince-staples","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25579"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=25579"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}