Photo by Adrian Nieto

Vince Staples is no longer beholden to a major label following stints on Def Jam and Motown across the majority of his discography, and has since found his way back to independence on Loma Vista Records. An unshackled creative spirit is already one thing, but that it now makes him labelmates with experimental hardcore punks Show Me the Body is not lost on these pages either after listening to “Blackberry Marmalade”, the lead single off his new album, Cry Baby. You can hear why that’s such an apt correlation for him to find himself here.

The listen is built around the kind of heavy, progressive genre-shifting sound which the NYC trio themselves have fucked around within against the status quo, and in Staples’ case, adding in concise bars makes for a provocative rap-punk brain worm to go down the rabbit hole with him on a study of American police brutality that has historically shed blood all over this nation’s Black history. There’s a bit of McClusky energy in there as well, though Staples dare is more a call out. “Just know that they miserable / And know that behind every smile / They thinkin’ ’bout killin’ you (Say it)”. Gun to head, this one’s got him in everyone’s spilling hard truths.

Directed by: Vince Staples & Bradley J. Calder

Vince Staples’ Cry Baby will be released June 5th on Loma Vista Recordings.