Vince Staples Searches for Light on ‘Dark Times,’ His Most Vulnerable Project to Date: Album Review
variety.comPeter A. Berry Vince Staples never did optimism, and he’s never been Mr. Sensitive. Dating back to his maiden mixtape, 2011’s Shyne Coldchain Vol.
1, the West Coast rhymer used irony and a poet’s perceptual lens to frame harsh truths in blunt observations. To Staples, you can fight the power, but only if you fight the ops, first.
You can catch a vibe at Long Beach block parties, but you can catch a stray bullet, too. Vince typically faces these realities with a phalanx of defiance and sardonicism, but he lowers his shield on his sixth album Dark Times, a project that trades in his steely gaze for spurts of surprisingly bleary-eyed reflection.
Here, sarcasm recedes into world-weary malaise and a search for hope. Vince is going through it, and he’s got no problem letting you know it on the most vulnerable LP of his career.
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