Vince Staples is known for his brutal honesty and he holds nothing back in a new interview when discussing why so few people grow up wanting to be cops. "People told us that you’re important if you're a rapper, which is the reason no kid wants to grow up and be a cop," Staples flatly admitted to Dazed. "The cops kill off black people, but there are no black cops because we rappers say fuck the police. Nobody wants to go to school because we say fuck school. Everybody feels like they have to be high because a rapper says, 'do this drug or that drug.' Nobody wants to become anything in the private sector because you're not important if you’re not rich. So no one wants to be the mailman."
It's a profound and insightful statement that echoes Staples' mindset when it comes to his own career gears up for the release of his new Prima Donna EP out later this month. As it turns out, he doesn't think what he's doing is so big in the scheme of things and reveals he had a different dream coming up. "My dream was to be fucking regular. You know how you watch Beethoven? That was cracking to me. That was the perfect life to me. They had a house, they had a car. They got both they parents and a dog."
In fact, the interview conversation barely touches on his new music. Instead, Staples vents about social media and how his occasional rants not really mattering since "nobody really cares about the shit they pretend to care about...Everybody’s full of shit." Staples views social media as a promotional tool, that left unused leaves money off the table. "That’d just be irresponsible, to not make any money. Other than that, shit doesn’t mean anything." Staples values honesty, but feels like most people don't even share their real opinions anymore "because everybody’s scared somebody is gonna say something."
The conversation shifts to rappers sensationalizing their surroundings for the sake of a rap. "Music is not that fucking important to the grand scheme of everything," explained Staples. "You can go to middle of the fucking forest where there is no music and you will see more life than you've ever seen on a Soundcloud link."
Staples' words are definitely a refreshing take on the industry. You can read the rest of his interview here and look out for Prima Donna to drop August 26 with an accompanying Nabil-directed short film conceived by Staples.
