Vince Staples is readying the release of his upcoming self-titled album, having set the tone with his brand new single “Are You With That?” In celebration of the new single, Vince took a moment to chop it up with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
Naturally, Staples had many kind words to say about his longtime collaborator Kenny Beats, who produced the upcoming Vince Staples in its entirety. “Kenny’s amazing,” praises Vince. “Kenny knows. Kenny’s somebody who still learns every day, he still takes from experiences and other things he hears in music and tries to figure out how to make them into his own.”
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“He knows he’s very much collaborative in a sense,” continues Staples. “A lot of people have an idea of what they want to do, but Kenny is somebody who kind of listens to what you kind of want to get across and he tries his best to kind of implement whatever you need, while still kind of remaining himself. So it’s always a fun time working with Kenny.” It’s no wonder that Vince opted to turn to Kenny once again, following their stellar work on the 2018 album FM! album
. As for the album itself, Vince opened up about his creative process, providing a bit of insight into his philosophy on music and art. “People like to hear you speak about this or people like to hear you speak about this or in this certain way, or this certain platform,” he explains. “You have to take what you feel like the elements of those things are and kind of put them in music. And I think that kind of determines… If you have something to say, if you have something that you think is funny, you have something that you think is interesting or you have something that makes you upset, put it in the music.”
“If you can put it in music, then you kind of bring that connectivity with people,” he continues. “So I think that’s kind of what may help me kind of figure out this go around, was just noticing those things.”
For more from Vince Staples, be sure to check out the rapper’s brand new single right here. Look for the upcoming album to drop this Friday, July 9th.