Vince Staples says he keeps other people’s music out of his ears when he’s writing. “I don’t like to be inspired by other music,” the Long Beach rapper told Harper’s Bazaar, adding that it would feel like “a disservice to the lives that we live every day,” as first reported by AllHipHop.
The interview runs alongside Harper’s Bazaar’s November feature naming Vince its guest music director. Instead of chasing what’s hot, he says he pulls from his own life, and he talked about how music connects to the memories it brings back.
The Context
Vince is still riding with Cry Baby, the 10-song album he released June 5 through his Section Eight Arthouse imprint with Loma Vista Recordings. It follows 2024’s Dark Times, and Apple Music’s notes point to noise rock and post-punk influences. His NPR Tiny Desk set, released in July, opened with “Blackberry Marmalade” and closed with “Only In America.”
That Tiny Desk had a moment too. Between songs, Vince asked the room about Bobby Hutton, the Black Panther member killed by police in 1968, and also named Larry Kimmons, who was killed by a Pepperdine University security guard in 1969, per AllHipHop.
The IAHHM Take
This explains a lot. Vince has never sounded like anybody else, from Summertime ’06 to Big Fish Theory to The Vince Staples Show on Netflix. When you’re not studying the playlist, you can’t accidentally copy it.
There’s a lesson in there for upcoming artists, too. Your life is the source material. The more you write from what you actually lived, the less you sound like the last viral hit.
Do you agree with Vince, or do you think artists need to study what’s around them? Let us know.
Source: AllHipHop
