Vince Staples

Vince Staples Gets Solemn In The Video For His New Single ‘Rose Street’

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A couple of weeks ago, rap prodigy Vince Staples released the music video for “Magic,” the first single from his forthcoming album Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which he first began teasing even before unveiling last year’s critically-acclaimed Vince Staples. Today, he’s back with a new single, “Rose Street,” and another music video.

The first 45 seconds of the song is a sample, leaving only a little over a minute for Staples to break into a flow. Against a trap beat and booming bass, he spews quips about his devotion to his friends over his romantic relationships: “I’m married to the gang, don’t be playing games / Only bringing flowers to the homie’s grave.” It ends abruptly.

The video is much less chaotic than the one for “Magic”; instead of getting jumped at a house party, he’s sitting solemnly on graffiti-adorned rocks at a beach looking at the crashing waves introspectively.

Before releasing the song at midnight, Staples took to Twitter to generate some hype: “Will Smith inspired me man let me drop this video,” he wrote, referring, of course, to Smith smacking Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith at the Oscars.

Watch the video for “Rose Street” above.

Vince Staples Criticizes Record Labels For Seeking ‘Money In The Violence’ Against Rappers

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Vince Staples 2022 concert
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Vince Staples has never been afraid to speak his mind, and even through his hilarious tweets that his fans enjoy, there’s always a hit of truth in them. An example of his honest thoughts came last summer when he said the music industry “monetizes people’s struggles” during a sit-down with The Independent. “We’ve seen people market and distribute death and destruction within our communities for decades; they do these things because it gets attention,” he said. Vince took a deeper dive into this topic during a recent interview with HOT 97’s Peter Rosenberg.

About an hour into the conversation, Vince slammed record labels for capitalizing on the deaths of rappers and finding “money in the violence” when that wasn’t always the case. “I feel like it was more protected,” he said while reflecting on hip-hop’s past. “When you hear N.O.R.E. and all those other people talk about the role that their A&R’s and executives had in their life, moving them out and doing certain things for them, like when Snoop talks about Master P moving him out to New Orleans. I don’t think anyone’s doing that anymore. I think they see the money in the violence. Back then, the violence ruined the money.”

He continued, “It’s money in it and they gonna keep selling it and we gonna keep perpetuating it and we gon’ be hurt when somebody die. I don’t necessarily know if they care. If they did, man the album ready in four weeks once you die. You get more press on the album after you die.” He concluded his message by directly addressing record labels.

“When it comes to these systems, they look at you like, ‘Oh, you’re dead, now we got something to move with,’” he said. “To the people that’s running music, just treat these people with humanity. You’re worth something before you die.”

You can view the full interview in the video above.

Vince Staples Releases “Magic” Video from Forthcoming ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’ Album

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Vince Staples Releases "Magic" Video from Forthcoming 'Ramona Park Broke My Heart' Album

Vince Staples has released the video for “Magic,” the first single from his upcoming album Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which will be released in April on Blacksmith Recordings/Motown Records. The video, directed by Prettybird’s KENTEN, comprises a succession of one-take images with camera movement that depict Vince’s day from a surrealist perspective, allowing the audience to perceive everything around him as if they were an observer.

“Magic,” produced by Mustard, is a celebration of how Staples overcame the inner city blues and a system that was supposed to keep him enmeshed in the adversity he grew up in.

“I think it’ll put the listener in a good state of mind,” Staples says. “The mood of it defines the project.” 

Ramona Park Broke My Heart is Staples’ follow-up to his critically praised self-titled album from 2021, which introduced fans to his homeland (the Ramona Park neighborhood of Long Beach, CA) as well as intimate friends and family.

Staples began his tenure as a support act on Tyler, the Creator’s 34-city North American Call Me If You Get Lost tour earlier this month, which also included Kali Uchis and Teezo Touchdown. Staples recently released his first graphic novel, Limbo Beach, through Z2 Comics. It follows the journey of the newest member of the Wunderlosts, a band of misfit teenage raiders, on a journey to discover the truth about the park—and himself—in a tale that is equal parts Lord of the Flies and The Warriors, co-written by industry vets Bryan Edward Hill (Batman & the Outsiders; Titans), Chris Robinson (Children of the Atom), and Buster Moody (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

The post Vince Staples Releases “Magic” Video from Forthcoming ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’ Album appeared first on The Source.

Vince Staples Gets Jumped At A House Party In His ‘Magic’ Video

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Vince Staples runs into some trouble during a house party in his new video for “Magic.” The video opens with Vince buying a bag of frozen vegetables at the liquor store, only revealing that he’s in a bad state as he reaches the counter. When the clerk asks if everything is okay, Vince stoically (but vaguely) replies, “Party down the street. You should have seen me.”

That’s when the video cuts back to watching Vince entering the party in a clever callback to his entrance to the liquor store. Things go left for Vince when he bumps into the wrong guy while trying to have a good time, resulting in him leaving the party with a different set of souvenirs than the ones he came for. The song’s producer, Mustard, also makes a cameo, shaking his head at the overt displays of machismo that ultimately result in Vince’s injuries.

“Magic” is the first single from Vince’s upcoming album, Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which he first began teasing even before releasing its predecessor, the self-titled Vince Staples, last year. The single was first teased in a Beats By Dre commercial featuring Naomi Osaka. This year, he suggested that the album might finally be ready to go once he secured a beat from DJ Quik, which seemingly manifested the outcome he wanted; days later, he’d posted a photo from the studio with the iconic Compton producer. That would suggest (along with the tweet below) that Ramona Broke My Heart is complete and ready for release sometime this year.

Until then, enjoy the “Magic” video above.

Vince Staples Explains How Snoop Dogg ‘Has Always Been The Biggest Rapper’

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Debates about who the best rapper is never seem to end, and now Vince Staples has shared his thoughts on one aspect of the discussion: When it comes to the “biggest” rapper, he thinks Snoop Dogg occupies that throne.

Speaking with Ebro Darden for a Black History Month episode of Apple Music 1’s The Message, Staples said of Snoop, “Snoop Dogg has always been the biggest rapper as far as brand, and namesake, to me at least. You can argue, people are equal, but you can’t argue nobody’s bigger than Snoop Dogg… He got the Martha Stewart show cracking right now, and nobody’s saying, ‘Who is that,’ when they watching the show, you know what I mean?”

He also explained why this year’s hip-hop-focused Super Bowl Halftime Show didn’t feel like a big deal to him, because it’s something that was supposed to happen:

“To me, [the halftime show]’s not even something to be super-duper excited about. It’s like, finally, because you can’t lie about it no more. It’s been so many times that they’ve pretended that this wasn’t a phenomenon, you know what I’m saying? They were playing songs from decades ago. That just goes to show you how long it’s been a thing, how long it’s been the pinnacle, but it’s good that they finally stop being stubborn and start coming around because it’s unavoidable at this point. […]

It’s just good to have that moment and just see how it comes full circle from Eminem taking his knee stance, to bringing it full circle with the Kaepernick situation, and the work that Jay-Z’s done in the messaging, and the lyrics, and all that… My pops used to always tell me… You come home like, ‘Oh, yeah. I got good grades.’ He’s like, ‘What you expect? You happy? You supposed to do that.’ I’m not giving people pats on the back for doing what they supposed to do. That’s just not how I’m built. I’m not proud of them, I’m not happy that they did it: they should have did it, you know what I’m saying? What else you going to do? What you going to put on there that’s more popping in LA for the LA Super Bowl? What’s your options? They had no other options except for the biggest hip-hop producer in the history of hip-hop arguably, the biggest rapper in hip-hop history arguably, and the biggest rapper out right now arguably. What other choice did you have? They didn’t do us no favor. They did what they was supposed to do.”

Watch the interview here.

One Great Song From Great Hip-Hop Albums in Recent Memory

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Tracks from Tyler, The Creator, Slowthai, Baby Tate, Rod Wave, Conway The Machine, J. Cole and more. Continue reading…