“I ain't never run from nothing but the police.”

July 20, 2015 11:58 AM

Vince Staples - Norf Norf [YouTube] [Video] [Explicit Lyrics] From the debut studio double album Summertime '06 by rapper Vince Staples.

Bonus video: Vince Staples - Señorita [YouTube] [Video] [Explicit Lyrics]

posted by Fizz (13 comments total)

A little Vince Staples to make your Monday that much better.
posted by Fizz at 12:00 PM on July 20, 2015

Whale song beats from Clams Casino, natch, but the production by No I.D. is pretty wonderful, too. My personal pick from Summertime '06 is Jump Off The Roof (audio only).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:10 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Summertime" is my favorite song off the album, which as a whole is amazing. I've been blasting this and Meek Mills' new album, of which the first track is one of the most epic rap songs I've ever heard.
posted by gucci mane at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I could describe this album politely but that would be doing it a disservice:

It does not fuck around.

Both of the videos are uncompromising as well. If you believe that there aren't any good rappers under 30*, listen to Vince.

His interviews are on-point as well:
"I Never Got To Pretend" (LA RECORD, 8/2014)
"I Don't Want No Bomber Jacket Rap" (Passion of the Weiss, 6/2015)


*=a friend of mine recently tweeted this! I'm so mad at him.
posted by raihan_ at 1:03 PM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

His interview on Microphone Check is also super interesting and challenging.
posted by chrchr at 1:21 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, shit, I keep meaning to check this new album out. That last EP was great. He has that killer menacing monotone like early Clipse, but without the weird attempts to be more crossover friendly.
posted by lkc at 2:18 PM on July 20, 2015

chrchr: yes! that one is amazing too, especially for people who are familiar w/ the industry! corey smyth was a major figure behind the rise of "golden era" hip-hop (he also manages talib kweli, jean grae and a whole host of other "backpacker" (lol) favorites)
posted by raihan_ at 3:58 PM on July 20, 2015

I feel like there should be a primer, like one of those 101 posts, to tack on to the end of rap posts to help preemptively stop complaints about rap being misogynistic. Personally I've made my peace with it and just don't play rap around people that might be offended but it still throws me for a loop sometimes and the first verse here was difficult to get through. I listen to a lot of heavy metal and don't have time for the sexist crap from 80s bands, so I don't listen to them/delete their shit, etc. Is there good criticism out there that engages with this conflict? Its literally the first thing that pops in to my head and I know this is derailing the thread but its such cognitive dissonance for me. I don't feel stung by the language- I'm a cis het white man, I've said those words, I'll probably say them again and regret it again- but it feels bewildering seeing it accepted on Mefi which presumably has stopped being such a boys club.

That being said, sick beat!
posted by kittensofthenight at 4:16 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks for your comment, kittensofthenight. We've had a lot of threads about that in the past. It's been a long time since we've had that argument here, or it might just be that I've missed them, because I personally have just tried to stay out of them.

You can hear in the Microphone Check interview that Vince Staples thinks a great deal about who he is and how what he says effects the world. He's also a very young man, and doesn't get everything right. I also think your comment explains it about as well as I could. Yes, the lyrics are problematic, and, yes, it's a powerful, effecting work of art.
posted by chrchr at 4:55 PM on July 20, 2015

"I shot your child, so what, you know we wildin' after dark", from "Birds & Bees". Sick lyrics!
posted by oluckyman at 5:43 PM on July 20, 2015

kittensofthenight: See if you can find Rock She Wrote at your local library. While the book is 20 years old, there are some illuminating essays about gangsta rap and misogyny written from a black feminist viewpoint. (I remember a really good essay about Ice Cube that Joan Morgan wrote.)

Speaking of Joan Morgan, her book When Chickenheads Come Home To Roost had some similarly ruminative essays on gangsta rap and womanism, and that might also be worth reading.

More recently, Alyx Vesey of Feminist Music Geek wrote about Syd tha Kid, and while I disagree with some of the points she's making, it might also be worth reading.

While these don't specifically deal with Vince Staples, they're decent resources for discussions of misogyny in hip hop, and I hope they're worth sharing.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:04 PM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

I love Vince and have been listening for a while but after listening to all of that a week or two ago, I just wasn't feeling it. The beats bang, but I feel like he's turning into the Bruce Willis of the rap game, where his flows all end up feeling the same. I'll always love Hostile though, that just knocks.
posted by cashman at 8:14 AM on July 22, 2015

chrchr: His interview on Microphone Check is also super interesting and challenging.

I keep forgetting how young Vince is. "I don't know what Native Tongue is. I know what De La Soul is because of MF DOOM and Good Burger." But he's also really thoughtful about the world in a way I am not, in a way I was not expecting in an interview with any musician to be honest. Values of "good" and "bad" being arbitrary, importance of life itself compared to fleeting things like music and fame.

Vince Staples: Meet the Musician Interview (27 minutes with Q&A) - a decent interview, which makes Vince look a lot better than the interviewer, who sounds like a goon a lot. Even some great stuff in the Q&A session. And now I want a peek at James Fauntleroy's archive of thousands and thousands of finished tracks.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:45 AM on July 29, 2015