Vince Staples' 'Dark Times' Review
occupies an ambiguous middle-ground, stuck between platinum-certified arena status and the ephemeral virality that defines too much of the mainstream rap industry. It’s a space that he shares with a handful of others – Maxo, Rapsody, Navy Blue, his onetime Odd Future colleague Earl Sweatshirt – and which allows him to craft densely thematic musical suites on a major-label platform without the pressure of landing a radio hit.
His fans refer to his style as “lyrical,” a highly charged term that seemingly elevates certain kinds of rap artists over others. But Staples knows how to make a hook-filled banger, too., and the Mustard-produced “Magic.” Both cuts got plenty of airplay on the West Coast but didn’t break onto theNot quite an underground rapper, not quite a major-label star, Staples has flourished by building a rich catalog as a “middle-class act,” as David Byrne once described his Talking Heads.
It feels brave for Staples to reach towards new depths of understanding about his life and the people he encounters. That makesa richer piece of music than the stock action heroics that typify rap, even if every moment on the album doesn’t quite work. Will it bring him the kind of mainstream success he has long deserved? Who knows. But as he turns a page in his career towards an unknown future, he should feel nothing but a sense of accomplishment.
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