On His Self-Titled Album, Vince Staples Finds Creative Freedom

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/ [login to see] /im-not-trying-to-fit-within-any-world-vince-staples-on-newfound-creative-freedom
Vince Staples says he had never heard the three-word phrase "Northside Long Beach" in pop culture before he said it on his 2015 single "Norf Norf."

"As far as music and media and films, I never had really seen any reference to where I grew up at," Staples said in a recent interview. "So it means a lot to me, obviously, to do that."

Six years on from that single, Staples' career is in a very different place: He's released three more albums. He's working on a show for Netflix. He's made it, financially. But his home base hasn't changed much; he's still living close to where he grew up. It's where his family is. It's where the things he knows are. "I don't go to Los Angeles," he says. "I don't live in Hollywood. I don't live in Malibu."

On his new, self-titled album, out today, Staples is still writing about North Long Beach — re-examining his upbringing to find new lessons, reflecting with a deepened perspective on the power of his relationships — and the extent to which the events of childhood have lasting effects. It's self-titled, in part, because Staples says it's the clearest expression yet of who he is. In his previous work, Staples spoke about those themes against a backdrop of production choices that offer commentary of their own. But the sound of Vince Staples doesn't distract from the concise and powerful writing that's always characterized his work, giving the listener no choice but to sit in the experience Staples is narrating and feel it.