VINCE STAPLES’ EIGHTH STUDIO ALBUM DARK TIMES, OUT NOW VIA BLACKSMITH RECORDS / DEF JAM RECORDINGS

Vince Staples released his eighth studio album, Dark Times via Blacksmith Records / Def Jam Recordings. A new era in the prolific artist’s canon, the album is a muscular and revelatory work refining elements that have been present in his catalog for the last decade: dense lyricism over lush, layered beats; wry, melancholic observations about life; finding pockets of light in an endless dark.

The guest voices on the album are limited to samples, friends popping up in the studio, and a narrative outro by Santigold, the iconic alt singer-songwriter, who tells Staples about an apocalyptic, yet awe-inspiring dream she once had.

On the track “Liars,” Staples also includes an iconic excerpt of Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin in conversation in 1973, debating about Black love. “Lie to me, smile,” Giovanni declares, urging Black men to show Black women respect and care. “That was one of my non-negotiables,” Staples says of having this interlude on the album, inspired by Giovanni’s persistence. “She was very adamant in what she was saying, and she was going to get her point across”.

He’s similarly introspective in “Government Cheese,” rapping about an imprisoned friend who calls him up after seeing him on TV. “Asked how he was/Said he seen me on ABC/Told him that I was good/Wonder if he believed,” Staples raps. A few lines later, Staples talks about the death of his older brother, and how it humbled him, forcing him to reflect on the fragility of life in a new way.

Staples balances out the melancholy with celebratory tracks, including “Étouffée,” a bouncy ode to his familial roots in Louisiana, and “Little Homies,” a word of encouragement to the younger generation, the chorus of which flows like a mantra: “Life hard, but I go harder/Streets cold, but the road taught us/Concrete where the rose blossom”.

In “Freeman,” the final song before Santigold’s outro, Staples reflects on his life with cool bravado: “It feels good to be a free man with clenched hands/I used to pray to find a way to make a label advance/But nowadays 100K ain’t even getting my glance/Ain’t even setting up no meeting ’til they meet my demands.” But as the song progresses, he drifts into a more zen place: “I understand I’m just a grain of sand and life is a beach/Only heaven knows whichever way I’ll blow in the breeze.”

The lines mirror Staples’s entire philosophy about making Dark Times. “It’s a testament to where I am right now and how I view things—it’s just a timestamp,” Staples says. “I might not feel like that again tomorrow. But in the process of making this project, these were the things that spoke to me”.

Staples gave fans a preview of the project sharing the first single and accompanying visual for “Shame On the Devil” ahead of its release.  The track features Staples rapping over a warm, spectral beat, ruminating on how anointed his life is now, in spite of bouts of loneliness and fallouts with friends.  “Mission complete, out of the mud, labeled a ‘leader” they following cuz,” he raps. “Light on my feet, floating above/I don’t be creeping or keeping in touch.”

In support of the album, Staples will kick off his BLACK IN EUROPA TOUR on June 4th at Live Music Hall in Köln, Germany.  The tour will make stops in Berlin, Paris, London, and more before wrapping in Oslo in August. For tickets and the full list of dates, please visit http://www.vincestaples.com/tour/.

Dark Times follows Staples’ 2022 critically acclaimed album Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which was hailed as one of the best albums of the year by Clash, Complex, The Fader, Rolling Stone, and Vulture among others. The Los Angeles Times praised Staples as “a nimble rapper, deftly maneuvering through verses depicting the street politics of his native Long Beach,” while Pitchfork called the album “a richly detailed, deadpan elegy for his stolen youth.” Complex highlighted it as “a modern West Coast rap album embracing three decades of hip-hop history,” while NME called it “a beautifully personal reflection from start to finish,” with WIRED commending the album as “a remarkable feat in an aesthetic project concerned with locating meaning in the inevitable realities that trap us”.

Demonstrating that his talent cannot be confined to one medium, Staples also wrote, produced, and stars in the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Vince Staples Show, which debuted earlier this year. Inspired by life in his hometown of Long Beach, California, the show was praised as “dark, hilarious, intriguingly frank… laugh-out-loud funny” by Entertainment Weekly, while The New York Times described it as “mordantly funny and visually arresting.” The Guardian hailed it as “a wonderfully surreal exercise in Black creativity,” adding that “[Staples] is an endlessly compelling presence,” with COLLIDER lauding it as “one of the most confident new series of 2024…never a dull moment on screen.”

 

TRACKLIST

1. Close Your Eyes and Swing
2. Black & Blue
3. Government Cheese
4. Children’s Song
5. Shame On the Devil 
6. Étouffée 
7. Liars
8. Justin
9. “Radio”
10. Nothing Matters 
11. Little Homies 
12. Freeman 
13. Why Won’t the Sun Come Out?