It’s rare to get an artist who consistently makes great music for over a decade. Usually, artists like Kendrick Lamar or Vince Staples take gaps between their releases in order to still remain fresh. Or, through the constant pressure of keeping up with streaming, they release an abundance of records, and some feel inessential. When you drop an album or two every year, eventually, fatigue starts to set in, for the artist and for the audience alike. That’s the problem with being prolific— eventually, you run out of great ideas.
But someone like Future breaks those ideas. Even if one record may come out a little worse than others, there are three or four records surrounding it loaded with gems. That kind of percentage across decades in the industry is an impressive feat that Vince Staples believes we should celebrate more.
In a clip from his new Apple radio show 5 On Fridays, the Long Beach MC talked about Future releasing his latest lengthy album, The Real Me. Then, he mused about how the Atlanta legend has remained relevant across decades, all while maintaining an audience that still feverishly supports him. Where most artists tend to drop in quality, he’s kept a pretty steady rate.
Vince Staples Applauds Future as One of the Great Examples of Longevity in Hip-Hop
“Longevity is a big talking point in hip-hop. When speaking about this, I often feel like Future gets left out of the conversation. I don’t really know why. I might have some opinions on that,” Staples shared. “But it’s been nearly a quarter of a century, and he’s still going. He always feels current; he always has something that is reflective of our current landscape and his home and the sonic palette of hip-hop.”
Vince Staples has remained remarkably consistent with his stance on Future. It reflects in his belief that rappers are the modern-day rockstars. In an interview 10 years ago, he declared Black artists as the defining markers of modern pop culture. Instead of Axl Rose or Gene Simmons, it was Future or Kanye West or Tyler, The Creator.
“You don’t see people walking around dressing like Jack White. That’s not real,” Vince Staples stressed. “So hip-hop is a popular, dominant culture. But the fact that hip-hop belongs to urban and typically Black people, [it’s] why we can’t just say that hip-hop is the popular culture. But it is. There’s no way around it.”
The post Vince Staples Says Rap Fans Don’t Give This Atlanta Rap Legend Enough Credit for His Longevity: ‘He Always Feels Current’ appeared first on VICE.
