Vince Staples Turns Rap Stardom Anxieties Into Comedy on The Vince Staples Show – Warungku Terkini

The Vince Staples Show is at its best when the focus is actually on the protagonist. He depicts himself as a regular dude, living a banal life in Long Beach (trips to the bank, hanging with his girlfriend). Without fail, an unexpected person who may or may not be from his past pops up and turns an everyday scenario into chaos. His character strolls around Long Beach with an unease that Staples plays well, knowing that every unexpected interaction could morph into violence in a snap. Occasionally, it goes well for him. In the second episode, the bank he’s at is getting robbed, but it turns out the robbers are homies from back in the day. It doesn’t go great in a later episode where Staples spends a day at the amusement park with his girlfriend and her kid brother and realizes that he’s being watched by the park mascots, who for some reason jump him.

While the scenes are pretty funny, they stand out because they’re rooted in the real anxieties of living as a well-known street-adjacent rapper. It’s a lifestyle like no other, considering they’re extremely visible, perceived as wealthy, and have inextricable local ties, which makes them safe nowhere. In the last few years, we’ve seen Young Dolph killed at a cookie shop in his hometown, and Pop Smoke killed chilling in a crib thousands of miles away from his native Brooklyn. The real horrors make the fifth and final episode of the season a standout.

The setup is that Vince goes to speak to the kids at his old high school—who, amusingly, couldn’t care any less about him—when one of the students informs him that his dad used to be his classmate and they have beef. Vince can barely remember the guy or what their static is about, but, quickly, they run into each other, and the guy immediately starts firing gunshots at Vince. Suddenly, it’s a wild dash through the streets of Long Beach, the bystanders numb to the violence. Ultimately, Vince has to make a life-or-death decision that brings the themes of his music that had been in the background to the surface: Stolen youth, a past you can’t escape, a realization that his normal will never be normal. It’s the kind of ain’t shit funny ending that makes you want to reconsider everything you just watched.

Mixtape of the Week: Carvie P’s His&Hers

I have a Valentine’s Day weekend suggestion, hear me out. Invite your date over, chef up a meal, light a few candles, and throw on a playlist of your favorite romantically inclined Milwaukee rap songs. On mine, there would be a few Mula Mar trick anthems, a pick or two from Munch Lauren’s Love EP, anything produced by Tae Huncho, and, maybe, Myaap and Lilrb’s “Wham,” which is a sweet duet (about throwing ass). Don’t forget to add Carvie P’s new mixtape, His&Hers, to that list. He doesn’t always stick to his theme, but stays close enough to sound love-drunk over mostly gentle trance beats. Try “Fallin in Luv,” where the hook is really earnest even if it seems like he’s also mid-burp. Or “AOM,” in which getting twerked on at the party is as effective of a meet-cute as Hugh Grant spotting Julia Roberts in the bookstore. Romance will be in the air! (Warning: Don’t blame me if your date gets up and rips the plug out of the speaker.)