After the acclaim of last year’s chilling Stolen Youth, Vince is going for the mixtape gold this year by way of Shyne Coldchain II. This first single increases the already high expectations: Scoop DeVille‘s beat has serious character to it, both inviting Vince‘s inherent bleakness and balancing it with parade-like energy, and Vince himself is in prime form, flowing both with his innovative looseness and invigorating precision. His opening bars are masterful:
As a kid all I wanted was to kill a man
Be like my daddy’s friends, hopping out that minivan
Chrome ’38s spinning like a ceiling fan
Crying on my momma’s phone swearing he a different man
Talking to me monotone, hardly ever coming home
Knew he was the villain never been a fan of Superman
From the image of the revolver’s chamber spinning, to the mention of his father’s monotone voice (like father like son), to the use of Superman to flip the conventional hero model, Vince is writing with clear focus, intent, and inspiration. Nothing could be as striking as that very first line, though. An entire childhood, mindset, culture, and personality, are condensed into eleven crisp words. Vince Staples is going to be here for a while.
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