Vince Staples is the ultimate interview subject. He always keeps it real and provides funny, interesting quotables. So, of course, he was a great guest when he sat down for a 50-minute chat on Pitchfork's In Sight Out podcast.
At the 41:30 mark of the episode, he acknowledged the importance of personality and viral moments in modern rap and said that his music is low on the list of reasons why he's famous.
Host Matthew Schnipper asked the question "Are you more famous because of Sprite [advertisements] or because of rapping?" Without hesitation, Vince responded, "Interviews. I'm more famous for interviews than either one. And then the lady." Of course, the lady he's referring to is the Christian mother who went viral for her tearful, negative response to his music.
Later in the interview, Schnipper asked Staples what he thought of SoundCloud rap. Vince responded, "What is that? Can you give an example? Is Lil Uzi Vert SoundCloud rap? I love Lil Uzi Vert." Vince Staples said he'd never listened to Lil Pump's music but asked if he was white because, "I don't know what I feel about white people with dreads."
As for SoundCloud rap as a whole, Staples said, ""I hope everybody's saving their money and not being rude to people. That's all I really care about. But as far as all these ni**as looking alike and—I just know who done shot somebody before. So when I hear people talk like that type of shit... It's like, I just did an album without one act of violence in it."
Speaking on the maturity in his own music, Staples added, "I was real proud of myself, because I can't be thinking about shit like that, bro. I'm over that type of stuff. There's no violence, no Crippin', no none of that on my album. I don't know if people noticed that, but I don't really say 'ni**a' unless it was on purpose. I only say it on the Rick Ross hook. I'm growing up a little bit, you feel me?"
You can listen to the full interview below, in which Staples also talks about Big Fish Theory and makes a hilarious comparison between Eminem's Trump freestyle and a Girl Scout selling cookies for cancer awareness (at the 5:45 mark).
