Vince Staples‘ new album Dark Times has received some lofty praise from an unexpected source: Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The rock legend took to X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend to share some succinct thoughts on the latest LP from the Long Beach rapper, which dropped last Friday (May 24).
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“new vince staples so deep and good,” he wrote.
Check out the post below.
new vince staples so deep and good
— Flea (@flea333) May 26, 2024
The accomplished bass player is a noted Hip Hop fan and has spoken in the past about the profound impact that it’s had on him.
In an episode of Amoeba Records’ What’s in My Bag in 2016, Flea got emotional when discussing his love for the late J Dilla.
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“I just love J Dilla. I just think he’s an absolutely transcendent, phenomenal musician,” he said. “I didn’t really know about him when he was doing it. He died really young. He had a blood disease or something. He just made his stuff basically in his bedroom with samplers and records.”
Holding up a copy of Ruff Draft, he explained the special place that the album holds in his heart.
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“I was in Big Sur by myself and I had on headphones and I was walking around these trails in the mountains listening to it, and it just touched this thing in me so deeply. I just couldn’t stop crying. It was so powerful,” he recalled, welling up.
As for Dark Times, the album marks both an end of an era and a new beginning for Vince Staples as it’s his last for Def Jam, the powerhouse label he called home for over a decade.
The 13-track, 35-minute project boasts production from the likes of Cardo, Jay Versace and J.LBS, along with guest vocals from Baby Rose and Kilo Kish.
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One highlight finds Vince crediting Below the Heavens, the cult classic collaboration from fellow West Coast natives Blu and Exile, with broadening his horizons as a rap fan (and eventual practitioner).
“I miss the radio/ Big Boy in the mornin, zoned in, waitin’ for my favorite song/ Ridin’ with my pops, in the front seat/ Pull up to the block, with the real Gs/ 92.3, 94.7, The Wave/ I know my real ones from the ghetto relate,” he raps on the aptly-titled “Radio.”
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“I know they finna play some Nelly today/ My favorite rapper ’til I hit seventh grade/ And Eron played ‘Below the Heavens’ and everything changed/ A better day was just a stones throw away,” he continues, also nodding to the acclaimed L.A.-based label.
His verse concludes with: “KDAY would play the records that my sister would say was realer than whatever I listened to/ When I got older, I realized it was true/ The purity of when it’s nothin’ to lose/ Back when n-ggas had the rhythm and blues.”
