We’re barely a week into June, meaning that there is still a ton of brand new music to look forward to! One of the the most anticipated projects this month is Vince Staples’s sophomore album Big Fish Theory, which drops on the 23rd. It’s been almost two whole years since the Long Beach rapper dropped his stellar debut double album Summertime ’06, but he has had a slew of standout features on various other artists’ songs and also released an EP late last year with an accompanying short film to boot since that time.
So whether you’ve been a fan since the Shyne Coldchain era or you’re a brand new listener, you wouldn’t want to miss this album. In preparation of Big Fish Theory, here are ten of the best songs in a discography that has very few blemishes.
BagBak
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The first of two singles Staples has released for BFT, BagBak was the first taste of what we might possibly expect from Staples’s upcoming album. Although Staples has been featured on many EDM-style tracks, this is truly the first one that he can call his own. It’s an energetic, high-tempo track, but don’t get lost in the production lest you miss the social commentary throughout the song, with gems such as “We need Tamikas and Shaniquas in that Oval office,” to the more blatant “Tell the president to suck a d–k because we on now.”
Señorita (feat. Snoh Alegra)
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What happens when you take a chilling piano instrumental with a Future Hendrix vocal sample on the hook, and get a 2 Naughty 2 Nasty Gangster Grip to rap over it? A masterpiece, that’s what. “I’m tryin’ to paint you a picture,” Staples says in the first verse, and with an aggressive display of lyricism, he does exactly just that. He gives you a vivid image of the environment he grew up in in Long Beach, California. Throw in Snoh Alegra’s killer uncredited feature, a memorable visual with a chilling twist at the end, and you have a truly a fascinating work of art worth analyzing multiple times.
Smile
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Perhaps the one song on this list that veers the furthest away stylistically from the other songs on this list, ‘Smile’ is the perfect reason why no one should put Vince Staples in a box the same way they may do to other rappers, something that he has been very vocal about. The third track off Prima Donna is backed by sweet guitar riffs, and with the album version featuring a single verse sandwiched between a chorus and bridge with introspective lyrics focusing on depression and mental health, it honestly would not sound out of place from your local alternative rock station’s rotation.
Nate (feat. James Fauntelroy)
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This is a special Vince song for me. It was the first Vince Staples track I ever listened to, and I’ve fallen in love with his music ever since. Backed by a more traditional boom-bap beat with horns, ‘Nate’ tells the story of a young Staples looking up to his problematic, drug dealing father. With opening lines like “As a kid all I wanted was to kill a man/Be like daddy’s friends, hopping out the minivan,” you are instantly transported to the impressionable mind of a young child. It’s storytelling at it’s finest, and with the exceptional James Fauntelroy’s heavenly vocals toward the end of the track, ‘Nate’ stands on it’s own as one of the best overall tracks in Vince Staples’s career.
Blue Suede
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This track punches you in the face to moment you press play. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer nastiness of the sharp synth and heavy bass production, plus Vince just goes waaaay too hard. Staples doesn’t beat around the bush on this track: if you aren’t with him in this dog-eat-dog world, then you’re a against him. With absolute BARS like “Ask where he from then leave his dome roofless/Sweet Chin Music kick back, gruesome/Watch out for Judas, Vice and G Unit,” or “Live or die for the whoopin’ or the Crippin’, pick a side/Death row, till they put you in the Pikachu to fry/That’s life, three strikes, that’s life,” Staples lets you know exactly where he’s coming from. His experience as a Crip has a major role in much of his music, but there is probably no one song that shows off more pride in that fact more than this one.
Lift Me Up
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‘Lift Me Up’ sets the tone for the entirety of S’06. It’s a dark and ominous track, with Vince rapping about the juxtapositions he observes as a someone trapped between two worlds: the more affluent (and white) social class that he has joined as a successful artist vs. the hood he grew up in Long Beach, California. The hook is more introspective, with Staples stating that he prays to God to help him somehow escape the pressures from both worlds weighing him down, possibly even through death, thus his soul would be being ‘lift up’ to Heaven. It’s a great opener for a tremendous double album, and it will be interesting to see how the first song on BFT will compare with this one.
Summertime
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The titular track to the first half of Vince’s debut double album, ‘Summertime’ is a slow and moody track that offers a deeper exploration into what was on the young rapper’s mind during his adolescence. In this case, it was love, something that Staples publicly stated as to being the driving force that tore apart the relationships he had with his friends at the time that this the album is dedicated to. For much of the song, Vince is talking to a girl that he has hurt, trying to get her to open up herself to him by opening up his about own deepest insecurities. It’s a cathartic track with Staples at his most vulnerable, something that is a real taboo topic within many marginalized communities. Depending on how emotional you can get, you might have to prep with a box of tissues for the gangster tears that are bound to fall from your eyes.
War Ready
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Man, James Blake and Vince Staples seriously need to consider forming a duo because every time these guys get together, only magic seems to come out of it. Blake’s production goes absolutely crazy and the Andre 3000 interpolation is god-level sampling. Staples definitely does his thing too, hitting you with a rapid flow of blunt bars ranging from race relations to name dropping Edgar Allen Poe. Staples reminds you with the song’s hook to not mess with him unless you expect a battle because he was indeed “Born ready, War Ready.”
Hive (Earl Sweatshirt feat. Vince Staples & Cassie Veggies)
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The sole feature on this list because it really served as Vince’s introduction to a wider rap audience, putting him on the map as one of the best young up-and-coming rappers, justifiably so. Vince’s verse at the end is LEGENDARY. I mean, the whole damn track is absurdly great, but when Earl Sweatshirt, who snaps on every single thing he does, says you have the verse of the year on HIS OWN SONG. AND YOU WROTE IT IN 15 MINUTES. You must be doing something right.
Norf Norf
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This one was a given from the start. Easily his most well known song, even before the whole incident with that white lady ranting about how this song was corrupting America’s youth (side note: you know a track is pretty fire when it offends white America), and it’s also one of his best. This was one of the first Vince Staples songs I listened to, and my personal favorite. I still bump it now as hard as I did the first time I heard it. I don’t even know where to begin on how great this song is. I mean hell, it probably has the greatest opening line to a song ever with “B—h you thirsty, please grab a sprite,” which also doubles as the greatest product placement line of all time. Great rappers can transport you into a different place, and Vince is one of the best in the game at doing just that. The song tells a gritty story of what it’s like to live “Where the skinny carry strong heat/Norfside, Long Beach,” but it does so in a way that’s so unapologetic and catchy as hell. Clams Casino goes crazy on the beat, and Vince does his usual thing of spitting nothing bars from beginning to end, proudly repping his hometown while also claiming his spot as one of the rap game’s finest.
