Vince Staples just put out his major label debut, the phenomenal Hell Can Wait EP, and when he came to NYC on tour recently, he was greeted with a fitting gesture: his first headlining show. The FADER chose to profile him on the day of that SOB's show for the first episode of their new "Earlier That Day" series, in which they present "day in the life" portraits of artists.
We follow Staples from his hotel to a photo shoot to the venue, and along the way, pick up some great advice from him: "You can have all the lyrics in the world, but if your beats is trash it don't matter. You can have the best beats in the world, but if the flow is trash it don't matter. Everything plays its part."
There's a moment backstage when Staples says "started from the bottom," and his whole team proceeds to echo "now we here." But instead of humoring their Drake reference, he sys, "Nah, we're not yet." For Staples, this is clearly only the beginning.