Vince Staples Q&A: The Most Exciting Man in Rap Drops Knowledge
Long Beach MC Vince Staples is this summer’s most exciting rapper. He’s an XXL Freshman, an actor in Dope and the auteur behind the cinematic double album Summertime ’06, one of the most critically acclaimed LPs of 2015. The album, recently released on Def Jam and executive-produced by Kanye mentor No I.D., documents a mad city from the perspective of a teenager who has just begun to see it clearly — sometimes too clearly for his own good. Its cover sets the scene, rendering the nearby Pacific Ocean to resemble cold, Joy Division radio waves.
Staples made his musical debut on Earl Sweatshirt’s first album, then came into his own through four mixtapes and last year’s Hell Can Wait EP. But according to the rapper, Summertime ’06 is different from all of them: After five years, he has finally released something that he can listen to without cringing. Last week, Staples sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about David Bowie, Charleston and this conflicted, invigorating LP.
What images were you thinking of when you came up with the title Summertime ’06?
It was kind of a turning point as far as how life and things go. I was basically just drawing inspiration from that, trying to get a certain mood, how I felt at the time period.
Did you approach the album with the Summertime ’06 concept or did it come together after your wrote some songs?
I have ideas just laying around, and I just picked one, honestly. We just had to pick which songs fit more toward a certain vision, then we had to find the beats for it. But I pretty much had everything already written and stuff. It was like a puzzle in a sense. . . . I watched a David Bowie documentary, and there’s never been two types of a David Bowie album. Every project has to stand on its own. It’s a different identity within each project, and I feel like that’s the way it should be.
Do you have a favorite David Bowie identity?
You’d be surprised, man. I like people to not know these things. Even with the cover and certain songs, people ask me, “Oh, you listen to Joy Division?” Like, why can’t I? Because I’m black? And on the other hand, I had a show where somebody’s manager was like, “Yeah, bro, I fuck with you. I’mma be honest I didn’t really listen to your music at first because I thought it was on some white-boy shit.” And my response was “What’s white-boy shit?” He didn’t know what to say. People are fucking crazy. I fuck with the Stardust though.
Someone made fiber-fucking-optics, but we don’t know how to treat people yet.
When you were looking for beats, how did you link up with No I.D.?
When we were brought into Def Jam, the spiel on the situation was that No I.D. was looking for a younger rapper to work with and start from scratch — he was bored and looking for something new to do. He’s helped us kind of get to the point where we understand that it’s whatever we want it to be. You hear all these crazy-ass rumors about how you sign to a label, then they make you go to the club and put out these radio songs. That shit’s not real. Like, it’s a creative process where you pick your destiny. He’s very much been an integral part of us figuring that out.