Arguably one of the most innovative rappers of this generation, Vince Staples, took to Instagram recently to announce the coming of his final full length release via Def Jam. The rapper, also known for his quirky sense of humor and his trademark deadpan aesthetic, revealed the album title as Dark Times alongside a tracklist available below for your perusal. The album comes out May 24, pre-save here!
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The album artwork features a minimal, low contrast, rugged aesthetic that compliments the title well and indicates Vince’s approach of letting the music speak for itself. The rapper also followed the announcement up quick with the release of a promotional single titled, ‘Shame on the Devil‘, which is out on streaming complimented by a rather short visual teaser:
Speaking on the single, Staples deemed the track “a personal achievement,” followed up by brief introspection on the nature of this music. “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.” No lies from Vince there, for it really does seem that the artist has come into his own in a more nuanced way than ever before. Thematically, too, the song is a sombre exploration of losing friends, making peace with loneliness and solitude, and finding some semblance of light in these dark times.
With what seems to be a lot of live instrumentation, riddled with shimmering guitar riffs and a nicely saturated bass guitar, the laid back new single is a treat for Pop and Hip-Hop lovers alike. Vince Staples takes the mic on the single in his identifiable drawl, dragging syllables stylistically to serve fresh flows with a hint of nostalgia. Switching between low pitched vocals and falsetto embellishments to mindfully cover the complete range of Vince’s artistry and well, the frequency spectrum, the song is a polished whole that does not escape into a monotonous siesta of music.
Prior to the announcement of this album, Vince also took to the Joe Budden Podcast to share his views on the Big 3 feud, surprisingly not playing into the hype. Instead, Vince spoke about the industry wilfully ignoring core issues pertaining to publishing in hip hop, with the advent of platforms sample archive platforms that make it easier to cut out collaborators, session musicians, and smaller writers out of payment splits. Whether this alludes to Vince’s new album featuring a more indie, live instrumentals based approach, is still unclear. However, you can speculate for yourself with the interview clip here:
