Vince Staples

Vince Staples Announces Eighth Studio Album ‘Dark Times’

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Vince Staples revealed his eighth studio album, “Dark Times,” which will be released on May 24 via Blacksmith Records / Def Jam Recordings. This album marks a new era for the prolific artist, showcasing his signature dense lyricism over lush, layered beats while offering wry, melancholic observations about life and finding light in the darkness.

“Dark Times” was recorded over seven months in North Hollywood. The album title came intuitively to Staples after he listened to the record in full, noticing heavy motifs that kept reappearing. The album cover, featuring a faintly seen noose, was similarly intuitive, encapsulating the themes of struggle and perseverance that permeate the project.

To coincide with the album announcement, Staples dropped the first single, “Shame on the Devil,” accompanied by an evocative visual. The track features Staples rapping over a warm, spectral beat, reflecting on the anointed nature of his life despite experiencing loneliness and fallouts with friends.

Calling the project “a personal achievement,” Staples said, “it’s me mastering some things I’ve tried before that I wasn’t great at in the beginning. It’s a testament to musical growth, song structure—all the good stuff.” Fans can expect a deeply introspective and richly produced album that continues pushing his artistry’s boundaries.

“Dark Times” promises to be muscular and revelatory, refining elements that have been present in Staples’ catalog for the last decade. Be sure to mark your calendars for May 24 to experience the full journey of “Dark Times” and catch the first single, “Shame on the Devil,” now available for streaming.

The post Vince Staples Announces Eighth Studio Album ‘Dark Times’ first appeared on The Source.

The post Vince Staples Announces Eighth Studio Album ‘Dark Times’ appeared first on The Source.

Vince Staples Announces Eighth Album ‘Dark Times’ Slated For Release May 24

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Screenshot 2024 05 20 at 8.37.26 AM

Vince Staples today announced the release of his eighth studio album, Dark Times, out May 24 via Blacksmith Records / Def Jam Recordings. A new era in the prolific artist’s canon, the album is a muscular and revelatory work refining elements that have been present in his catalog for the last decade: dense lyricism over lush, layered beats; wry, melancholic observations about life; finding pockets of light in an endless dark.

In conjunction with the album announcement, Staples released the first single from the project and accompanying visual for, “Shame on the Devil,” which features him rapping over a warm, spectral beat, ruminating on how anointed his life is now, in spite of bouts of loneliness and fallouts with friends.  

Recorded over the course of seven months in North Hollywood, the album title came intuitively to Staples after he listened to the record in full, noticing heavy motifs that kept reappearing. The album cover,  featuring a faintly seen noose, was similarly intuitive.  Calling the project  “a personal achievement,” Staples said, “it’s me mastering some things I’ve tried before that I wasn’t great at in the beginning. It’s a testament to musical growth, song structure—all the good stuff.” 

Dark Times follows Staples’ 2022 critically acclaimed album Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which was hailed as one of the best albums of the year by Clash, Complex, The Fader, Rolling Stone, and Vulture among others. The Los Angeles Times praised Staples as “a nimble rapper, deftly maneuvering through verses depicting the street politics of his native Long Beach,” while Pitchfork called the album “a richly detailed, deadpan elegy for his stolen youth.” Complex highlighted it as “a modern West Coast rap album embracing three decades of hip-hop history,” while NME called it “a beautifully personal reflection from start to finish,” with WIRED commending the album as “a remarkable feat in an aesthetic project concerned with locating meaning in the inevitable realities that trap us.”

Demonstrating that his talent cannot be confined to one medium, Staples also wrote, produced, and stars in the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Vince Staples Show, which debuted earlier this year. Inspired by life in his hometown of Long Beach, California, the show was praised as “dark, hilarious, intriguingly frank… laugh-out-loud funny” by Entertainment Weekly, while The New York Times described it as “mordantly funny and visually arresting.” The Guardian hailed it as “a wonderfully surreal exercise in Black creativity,” adding that “[Staples] is an endlessly compelling presence,” with COLLIDER lauding it as “one of the most confident new series of 2024…never a dull moment on screen.”

TRACKLIST

  1. Close Your Eyes and Swing
  2. Black & Blue
  3. Government Cheese
  4. Children’s Song
  5. Shame on the Devil 
  6. Étouffée 
  7. Liars
  8. Justin
  9. “Radio”
  10. Nothing Matters 
  11. Little Homies 
  12. Freeman 
  13. Why Won’t the Sun Come Out?

The post Vince Staples Announces Eighth Album ‘Dark Times’ Slated For Release May 24 first appeared on The Source.

The post Vince Staples Announces Eighth Album ‘Dark Times’ Slated For Release May 24 appeared first on The Source.

Vince Staples Announced His Next Album, ‘Dark Times,’ And Shared Its Official Tracklist

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The future of The Vince Staples Show may not be clear. But, fans can rest assured knowing that the “When Sparks Fly” rapper has new music on the way.

Today (May 19), Vince Staples announced his next album, Dark Times, across the entertainer’s official social media pages. In a note shared on Instagram, Vince outlined his professional journey which served as an inspiration for the forthcoming project.

“Eleven years ago, a young, uncertain version of myself was given an opportunity with Def Jam Recordings,” he wrote. “I released my first project under their banner, ‘Shyne Coldchain Vol 2,’ a year later. I was unsure of what to expect from the world of music, but deeply aware of what I needed: a change in my surroundings and a clear understanding of self. Ten years and seven projects later, I’ve found that clarity. Now, I share with you my final Def Jam release, Dark Times. 5.24.24.”

To give supporters a taste of what’s to come, Vince went on to upload a snippet of one of the body of work’s upcoming tracks, “Shame On The Devil.”

Dark Times is Vince’s follow-up to 2022’s Ramona Park Broke My Heart.

Continue below to view the tentative artwork and confirmed tracklist.

Artwork

X (formerly Twitter)

Tracklist

1. “Close Your Eyes And Swing”
2. “Black & Blue”
3. “Government Cheese”
4. “Children’s Song”
5. “Shame On The Devil”
6. “Étouffée”
7. “Liars”
8. “Justin”
9. “Radio”
10. “Nothing Matters”
11. “Little Homies”
12. “Freeman”
13. “Why Won’t The Sun Come Out?”

Dark Times is out 5/24 via Blacksmith Recordings/Motown Records. Find more information here.

Kenny Beats Ends “The Cave”: 7 Best Freestyles

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After 5 years of chopping samples and dropping unplanned bars with his closest friends, Kenny Beats ended his hit YouTube series The Cave. The Cave centered on one key phrase, which has become a spiritual mantra of Kenny’s studio: Don’t Over Think Sh**. Throughout 46 episodes of varying length, Kenny inspired rappers such as Freddie Gibbs, Danny Brown, Teezo Touchdown, and more to rap over hastily-made beats with uncleared samples, resulting in a myriad of delightful tracks that will never see life on any streaming service.

In an April 29 community post directly to his YouTube subscribers, Kenny Beats confirmed that he would be bringing The Cave to an end. “I spent 16 hours a day in that room, 7 days a week, telling any one I could reach to come make music,” the statement read. “After a while, we realized everyone who was coming by was going to be a legend, and the Cave started. This show changed my life, your support changed my life.” Let’s look back on a handful of the best freestyles to come out of the illustrious series.

Read More: Top 10 Hottest Freestyles Of 2021

7. ScHoolboy Q

ScHoolboy Q popped up for the series finale of The Cave and ended the show with a bang. As part of a victory lap from dropping his long-awaited album Blue Lips at the top of March, Q explained right from the start that he hadn’t had much material prepared. Ultimately, he managed to rap the “verse of the year” even though Kenny hadn’t finished chopping the beat.

It’s more than fitting that the final episode of The Cave saw Kenny Beats uttering his now-iconic refrain of “the show is not supposed to go like this,” as that became something of a motto throughout the series. If there’s one lesson to take away from Kenny’s show, it’s that rappers can be difficult to work with, incapable of following direction and flatly aggressive at times, but if you give them a hot enough beat, they’ll turn it into magic.

6. Isaiah Rashad

Like ScHoolboy Q, fellow TDE signee Isaiah Rashad also joined Kenny Beats on The Cave to promote a new album back in 2021. Rashad appeared on the show just before his album The House Is Burning hit streaming. Isaiah Rashad and Kenny clearly share a lot of camaraderie, and their chemistry shines on their quickly-constructed track.

Rashad was originally slated to appear on The Cave at an earlier date. The original episode never materialized online, for unknown reasons. Kenny Beats jokes about this at the beginning of the episode by labeling the song file “Zay Cave Take 2.” He also stated, “We have Isaiah Rashad in The Cave today, first time ever… Somebody leaked a photo a while ago, that was all Photoshop.”

Read More: 6lack Delivers Scintillating Bars On Kenny Beats’ “The Cave”

5. Thundercat

Unlike most guests on The Cave, Thundercat doesn’t specialize in writing bars. This made his episode extra special, as he joined Kenny in constructing the beat, dropping some slick grooves on his bass before entering the booth. Thundercat exudes purely chaotic energy in the studio, making him one of the most entertaining characters to grace the series. In his February 2020 episode, Thundercat correctly predicts that Coronavirus is about to become a serious problem, expresses concerns over the upcoming presidential election, and downs a staggering 4 Yerba Mates, totaling more than 300 mg of caffeine in less than an hour.

4. Earthgang

Earthgang deserves a spot on this list for Olu’s incredible world map pants alone. Still, their inclusion can truly be credited to the “crazy kung-fu freestyle action” promised by WowGr8 early in the episode. The Atlanta rap duo joined Kenny Beats on The Cave in the first season. They provided a freestyle so well-crafted it could seamlessly have been dropped on streaming if its samples were properly cleared. The pair of Dreamville signees exhibit tremendous chemistry here, making their long-awaited episode one of the most memorable in the show’s 5-year run.

3. Denzel Curry

Denzel Curry’s episode of The Cave was billed as the season 1 finale. It packs the second longest run time of any episode at 16 minutes and 12 seconds in length. Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats dropped a collaborative EP only 6 months after this episode premiered. The project, titled Unlocked, solidified the fact that the pair perfectly fed off of each other’s musical energy.

While Denzel is less outwardly antagonistic to Kenny than his usual guests, he manages to keep the energy incredibly high. Kenny even remarks “Denzel here by himself is like more energy than ten people.” If we’re measuring by pure bars, this might actually be the best freestyle on this list, as Denzel effortlessly traverses multiple beat switches in real-time with memorable lyrics such as “Flames all on my body like I’m Charmander.”

2. Zack Fox

While Denzel Curry may have had the best jaw-dropping bars in The Cave‘s history, nobody made the show synonymous with their name quite like Zack Fox. The Cave is largely responsible for launching Zack Fox’s music career in the first place. Though Fox had dropped a few comedic tracks online before his Cave appearance, he was mostly known for his comedy writing and hilarious social media rants which once got him banned from Twitter (now X.)

While Thundercat may have exhibited some loopy energy on The Cave, Zack Fox appears on the series as the final boss of chaos. Fox raps hilarious bars about freeing Palestine and preemptively offering condolences for the impending death of Betty White. His freestyle was later developed into a “real” song titled “Jesus Is the One (I Got Depression)” that went mega-viral. When people think back to Kenny Beats’ series The Cave, there’s a 90 percent chance that this is the episode that got them into the show.

1. Vince Staples

Just two weeks after the explosive Zack Fox episode made The Cave a viral sensation, Vince Staples joined the show and launched the insanity to the stratosphere. Denzel Curry may have offered the best rapping, and Zack Fox may have provided the most comedy, but Vince Staples perfectly smashes these two worlds together with a freestyle that is equal parts off-the-walls and loaded with powerful rhymes.

From the top of the show, Vince Staples pesters Kenny Beats with the voracity of Bugs Bunny, demanding a beat with “808’s no heartbreak, at all” and “Black on everything crime, even animals.” Elsewhere in the episode, Vince throws up gang signs, accuses Kenny of engaging in the slave trade for locking his studio door, and raps the now iconic phrase “Kenny Beats is the police.” Kenny Beats cop memes flooded the internet for years after this landmark episode, causing the producer to jest in multiple episodes that “Vince Staples ruined my life.”

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Halsey, Vince Staples, Janelle Monáe, And More Join The Fantastic 2024 Flow Festival Helsinki Lineup

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If you plan on finding yourself in Finland this summer (or don’t yet but have been looking for some travel inspiration), Flow Festival Helsinki is set to go down from August 9 to 11. The lineup was already looking fantastic, but it just got even better today (April 23) with the third wave of acts announced.

The full list of artists unveiled today includes Halsey, Janelle Monáe, Vince Staples, Aurora,, Amaarae, Yves Tumor, Barry Can’t Swim, Evian Christ, Ron Trent Presents WARM, Gasellit, Malla, Lauri Haav, SMC, Turisti, Grande Mahogany, and Goldielocks.

They join a lineup that already featured folks like Fred Again.., Raye, Pulp, Idles, The Smile, PJ Harvey, Jessie Ware, Overmono, Blonde Redhead, Alvvays, Miriam Bryant, Kenya Grace, Artemas,
Kokoko!, Serpentwithfeet, and Helena Hauff.

The fest goes down at the historic Suvilahti power plant area in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Tickets are available now via the Flow Festival website. Three-day passes start at 239€ (about $261), while a two-day pass goes for 199€ ($218) and a one-day pass is 129€ ($141) for Friday or Sunday, or 149€ ($163) for Saturday.

Flow Festival is fresh off a nomination for Best Festival Creative at the 2024 Uproxx Sound + Vision Awards, “a first-of-its-kind award honoring the creative direction that helps music connect with its audience, adding untold value and nuance to the art form.” So, it’s an event worth making the trip for.

WATCH: Vince Staples Calls Out Streamers for Supporting Beef but Not Empowering Artists

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Vince Staples was on The Joe Budden Podcast and pointed out another side of the current Kendrick Lamar/J. Cole/Drake beef that many have not considered, while stating the cast’s takes are “borderline coonery.”

Vince highlighted how corporations are getting in on the beef, highlighting the battles but never advocating for artists’ pockets.

“Once n-ggas mad, we got billboards from streamers talking about ‘Hip-Hop is a sport,’ but we ain’t never see a billboard from a streamer that said ‘give that n-gga his publishing back,’” Staples said.

You can hear Vince’s entire take below.

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ScHoolboy Q Drums Up Hype For Vince Staples New Album

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After taking 5 years off of new releases, ScHoolboy Q returned earlier this year. He dropped his new album Blue Lips last month and it was met with acclaim from both fans and critics. For the project he recruited guests like Rico Nasty, Freddie Gibbs, Ab-Soul and more. But with a recent tweet he hyped up yet another highly anticipated comeback from a former collaborator of his. Q teamed up with Vince Staples for the track “Ride Out” from 2016 album Blank Face LP.

Now Vince Staples is gearing up to release his own new album. His last project RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART dropped back in 2022 so he hasn’t been gone nearly as long as Q. But that hasn’t stopped fan anticipating from reaching just high of a point for his new album. That wasn’t helped by a new tweet from Q hyping the project up. “Da new Vince staples album omg. few records I wanna Hear again,” his tweet reads. In a later response to a comment he assured fans even further that the record is “crazy.” Check out the posts he made drumming up hype for the album below.

Read More: ScHoolboy Q Stands With Kanye West

ScHoolboy Q Shares His Excitement For New Vince Staples Album

The cosign of his upcoming album mirrors Vince’s comments about Blue Lips earlier this year before it dropped. He was also building up hype for Q’s project in advance of its release. Vince has even been teasing his own upcoming album himself. Just last week he hinted that a new project could be on the way before he takes off on tour later this year.

Vince appears to be shifting his focus back to music after dropping his new Netflix TV-show earlier this year. The project was met with critical acclaim but hasn’t yet been officially renewed for a second season. What do you think of ScHoolboy Q hyping up Vince Staples new album? Do you think you’ll listen to the project whenever it drops? Let us know in the comment section below.

Read More: ScHoolboy Q & Rico Nasty Go Ballistic On “Pop”

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Vince Staples Doesn’t Approve Of Streamers Using Drake And Kendrick Lamar Beef To Promote Themselves

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Ever since his debut, Vince Staples has been reliable for offering a unique viewpoint on the issues facing hip-hop. With seemingly everyone in the genre focused on the possible feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, he unsurprisingly had a skewed take that pointed out a huge problem when it comes to the business of selling rap beef.

Noticing that Spotify had begun running billboards in Times Square reading, “Hip-hop is a competitive sport,” Vince censured the streamer in the latest episode of the Joe Budden Podcast. When the host called the Long Beach rapper and asked about the supposed dispute between Drake and Kendrick, Staples called out both Spotify and the rest of the cast.

“We either with the coonin’ or we not, bro,” he said. “Once n****s get mad, we got billboards from streamers talking about ‘Hip-Hop is a sport’, but we ain’t never seen a billboard from a streamer that said ‘give that n**** his publishing back.’” He also made several salient points about the adoption of hip-hop in pop music and tech while cutting out as many of the craftspeople involved as possible. Naturally, those goofs argued with Vince, making fun of him for “always being on some cerebral sh*t,” but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s right.

Check out the clip below.

Killer Mike Supports Vince Staples In His Pursuit To Bring Back His Netflix Series For Second Season

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Killer Mike and Vince Staples have had a lot of reasons to celebrate over the past couple of months. Both acclaimed rappers have been racking up praise from critics in the entertainment and the music industry, respectively. Of course, Mike was awarded several GRAMMYs for his second solo record MICHAEL. He wound up taking Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Performance. For Staples, television buffs have been raving about The Vince Staples Show, his Netflix limited series. Killer Mike has been a big supporter of it since it dropped, and he is backing it further.

According to HipHopDX, he the Atlanta native is demanding that the streaming giant renew it for another season. He shared an Instagram post of him and Vince Staples dressed dapperly with a passionate caption. “@netflix we need season 2 of The @VinceStaples show and Trigger Warning with Killer Mike! ☦ #MICHAEL” The Run The Jewels affiliate is referring to a similar short series he dropped in 2019.

Read More: Quavo Gives Kirk Cousins New Nickname After Atlanta Falcons Signing

Killer Mike Is All For Season 2 Of Vince Staples Hit Show

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Killer Mike (@killermike)

As we mentioned, the show has captured the attention of Mike from the start. When Vince tweeted and asked, “Who’s watching?” his fellow rap mate replied with glee “Me!” Furthermore, KM called the creative a “genius” and its clear their friendship is strong. Hopefully we do get that next season, with Rotten Tomatoes rating it 94% fresh.

What are your thoughts on Killer Mike backing Vince Staples in trying to get a second season for The Vince Staples Show? Did you get a chance to watch the Netflix series? If so, what did you think if of it? What was your favorite episode and why? Who had the best performance in the series? We would like to hear what you have to say, so be sure to leave your takes in the comments section. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest news surrounding Vince Staples and Killer Mike. Finally, stay with us for everything else going on around the world of music and TV.

Read More: Rick Ross Hilariously Responds To Someone Claiming His Watch Is Fake

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