The Long Beach artist’s latest project uses rock frameworks to dissect Black identity and institutional racism, with production that nods to post-punk, garage pop, and Bad Brains.
Vince Staples has released a new album, Cry Baby. It continues a career-long pattern of moving past genre boundaries while holding onto his core concerns. The North Long Beach rapper and singer has worked with SOPHIE, James Blake, and Hans Zimmer, and his discography includes the electronic-inflected Big Fish Theory and the downtempo “Summertime” from Summertime ‘06. Cry Baby marks another turn, this time toward rock.
The album’s sound is built on distorted guitars, droning synths, and drum patterns pulled from punk and post-punk. “Blackberry Marmalade” opens the record with a rhythmic pulse reminiscent of OutKast’s “Hey Ya!,” but the song trades youthful heartbreak for a layered look at Black identity and the forces that attempt to flatten it. “The Running Man” pairs a bass drone and a drumbeat that suggests Bad Brains at a slower tempo with lyrics about anxiety and survival
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