Vince Staples recently announced that he will release Big Fish Theory on June 23rd. He incinerated the microphone on both of the album's first two singles, "Bagbak" and "Big Fish," and we feel pretty confident that he has done the same with the remainder of the album's tracks.
That said, we have a few prescriptions for Staples if he wishes to get the most out of Big Fish Theory. Click through the gallery to read our wishlist.
The return of Hagler
WHO IS HAGLER? you ask. Hagler has produced for Drake, A$AP Ferg, and Young Thug, but he is best known for producing four songs on Hell Can Wait, the 2014 EP in which Vince Staples first realized his mighty artistic potential. Hagler produced four of the project's seven tracks—he is most notably responsible for the death knell whine of "Blue Suede"—but hasn't appeared on either of Staples' last two releases. We want Hagler.
... and the rest of Staples' production braintrust
Staples' Summertime '06 was masterminded by No I.D. and featured a small circle of producers, primarily DJ Dahi ("Lift Me Up"), Clams Casino ("Norf Norf"), and Christian Rich ("Senorita"). Rich produced Staples new single "Big Fish," and we hope this augurs a return of the rest of the S06 braintrust.
"Me and Vince have a really good relationship where we have built trust with each other, so its not like if I tell him, 'Yo, I don’t like that. Do it again.' Or he’ll tell me, 'This is kind of cool, but I need something different,'" Dahi told HNHH last year. "Just building a sense of trusting each other where we just want to see the other do well."
Dark humor
There is no rapper with an online presence more hilarious than that of Vince Staples. He occasionally steps outside of his preferred turf, Twitter, to expand on his ingenious Ray J Theory of Everything or to moonlight as a food critic on Yelp. But rarely does Staples apply the full force of his acerbic wit to his music. His music videos are often subtly humorous, and he would do well to further incorporate his considerable comedic talents into his dim takes on humanity.
A cultural hit
Staples is an unlikely candidate to produce a bonafide radio hit. He is more likely to create a song that becomes a rallying point or cultural touchstone, in the vein of of Kendrick Lamar's "Alright," which peaked at #81 on the Billboard Hot 100 but became a vital protest song in response to police brutality.
Whereas "Alright" speaks directly to black people everywhere, and Staples music is more inward-facing. Here's what he said in a 2015 interview with HotNewHipHop, shortly before he released S06:
"My music was in no way tied to the events that happened in Ferguson, because I feel like I was not a part of that moment. I did not have to sit there and go through the hardships and heartache of the parents of the people that lost their people. My music was about my life, and what I've been through. Of course, you can relate those things with certain occurrences. What I can say is that life in general comes full circle for a lot of people, and a lot of us are more similar than we think.
Music is about life, if my album came out in December it would still be called Summertime '06. It's not about catching a moment, it's about creating one. If we want to create something significant, it has to come from something that we feel passionate about. I'm very passionate about the things that I've seen in my life, how they've affected me, and how telling those stories can affect other people and help other people."
Aquatic themes and imagery
Staples' "Lift Me Up" video approached the edge of the ocean—seagulls circling above industrial Long Beach waters—then his "Life Aquatic" tour, he set up a giant tri-fold screen behind him on which he projected images that helped him evoke an aesthetic that, as MTV News' Tirhakah Love described, "quickly plunges into deep-sea histories where algae-covered skeletons reanimate and ruminate on what it means to breathe underwater."
Next in his series of nautical hellscapes: his shipwrecked "Big Fish" music video. "Swimming upstream while I'm tryna keep my bread / From the sharks make me wanna put the hammer to my head."
Let's keep this trend going.