Vince Staples Artistfacts

July 2, 1993
Staples grew up poor in Long Beach, California, and joined a set of the Crips gang when he was 13. A lot of his early music is about that time, but he doesn't glorify gang life and makes it clear that most of his early life was very normal: hanging out with friends, playing sports, having fun. He thinks the media and most rappers from the area focus on the drugs and violence, but there's a lot more to it.
The summer of 2006, when Staples turned 13, was a transformative time for him. He got involved with gang life, marking a symbolic end to Vince's childhood, but it was also a time when he was learning to make music and finding his voice. When he released his debut album in 2015, he called it Summertime '06 in reference to that summer.
Long Beach was a very dangerous place to grow up, but Staples had a lot of fun there, especially on days when he and his friends would skip school and go to the mall. He says it was like "ghetto Leave It To Beaver," a reference to the wholesome family sitcom of the 1950s.
Staples never did drugs or drank alcohol, so you won't hear him rapping about smoking blunts or drinking Hennessy. He stayed sober for the sake of survival. "I was too busy trying to cope with the reality of people dying and people trying to kill me every day," he said.
Most rappers have big ambitions, but Staples is happy being able to do his own thing on his own terms. "I don't care to be the biggest, the best," he told NPR. "That kind of stuff doesn't move me."
When he was 15 his good friend Jabari Benton, also 15, was shot and killed. "I stopped caring about life when I was 15 years old and my homie got killed by a grown man," Staples told Self-Titled. "His dad still calls to check on me, to tell me he's proud of me. He says he cries sometimes when he hears my songs."
Staples is really funny in interviews, where he speaks his mind with refreshing candor. You can tee him up on just about any topic, and he'll deliver. For instance, here's his take the vegan diet: "I'm not eating no quinoa. None of that fancy stuff. If it's a vegetable it should come in a can."
He's a big Los Angeles Clippers fan with fond memories of getting great seats to their games back when they were terrible. They became a playoff team when star point guard Chris Paul joined them in 2011, but Staples often blasted Paul for his dirty play, ugly shoes and annoying State Farm commercials.
The languid British band Joy Division, whose lead singer, Ian Curtis, died by suicide in 1980, was a big influence on Staples' debut album, Summertime '06. The album's cover art is based on the cover of Joy Division's 1979 album Unknown Pleasures.
Staples has a cameo in the movie version of the video for the 2018 Lil Nas X megahit "Old Town Road." He races a car against Nas' horse and loses. As he pays off their bet, he gets some dialogue: "You cheated - that horse got like a V12."
In 2024 he got his own show on Netflix, The Vince Staples Show, where he plays himself, but in an alternate reality. In the first episode he gets pulled over and sent to jail, where the cops recognize him and take him back in the office to hang out. Here's an interesting bit of dialogue from that scene:

Cop 1: "Why don't you get an entourage? Just like-minded fellas protecting you from your dirty work like '90s rappers did."

Cop 2: "Like Tupac."

Staples: "How'd that work out for him?"

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