‘Dark Times’ By Vince Staples — A Review
This review is brought to you by Isi & Ivo, we also post daily music content on our Twitter (or X) account, more info is at the end of the article
yo,
‘Dark Times’ is Vince Staples’ sixth studio album and his third release since the start of the decade. Also his last project with Def Jam Recordings, the label that helped Vince grow as an artist — He actually raises a toast to Def Jam on the last track Freeman.
Vince announced the project on May 15th, via a Twitter post, stating that there will be new Vince Staples music next week.
A few days later, on May 19th, Vince made a post on Instagram announcing the new album with 12 songs along with the release of the lead single Shame On The Devil.
In this single, Vince brings up the deep atmosphere present in the whole project. You can really feel Vince struggling with his demons on this track — Voices still in my head.
This internal conflict is also a recurring theme throughout the project. There’s a lot of reflection, with Vince reminiscing about his journey from the streets to success. This single felt like the perfect way to introduce his new body of work, setting the tone for its themes.
The West Coast musician continues to add quality to an already very solid discography, with what might be his grittiest and darkest album yet, as the title suggests.
The album starts similarly to the intro of ‘RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART’, Vince’s previous project, with an ambient melody that transitions to Black&Blue.
‘Dark Times’ is a lyrical dense journey through Vince’s fears, insecurities, and the harsh reality of living in a dangerous and unfair world. However, despite all these negative sensations, Vince still manages to deliver the record in an uplifting way.
Little Homies is probably the best example of this, being one of the grooviest tracks on the project while delivering a powerful message of determination, personal growth, and unity to the younger generation, especially those growing up in marginalized communities.
Black&Blue is yet another great example. Despite its very energetic and transcendent sound, it paints a somewhat dark picture of Vince, illustrating his discontent with no longer being the person he used to be.
Even with all the success hip-hop has brought him, he still feels like a part of him is missing.
The whole album is put together greatly with not many flaws. The production and cohesiveness of this record are truly something amazing.
Production-wise, this record is a balance between the muddier, almost boom-bap feel of the beats and the fluid, west-coast sounds.
The melancholic keys of Nothing Matters along with the subtle D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill sample. The gurgling guitar and organs on Black&Blue, the dilapidated guitars groaning over Children’s Song, and especially Little Homies with its warbling two-step and Étouffée with its chalky rhythm that transforms into a straight bounce tune in the outro.
Also worth mentioning Government Cheese, where Vince samples his own track Blue Suede from ‘Hell Can Wait’.
Kind of like what Vince does in the track Freeman, reflecting on his career from the past 10 years while ending on a bit of a positive note when chanting throughout the chorus — It’s All Good.
The Government Cheese sample emphasises this even more as ‘Hell Can Wait’ is Vince’s first official EP and also marks his first commercial project, released under Def Jam Recordings, while ‘Dark Times’ marks his last.
All the songs here are excellent overall, but it’s Vince’s attention to detail in assembling this entire project that makes it such a masterpiece.
You can see this perfectly when Vince delves into his relationships with women. From moments evidencing that women lie a lot, like in Justin, which conventionally follows the interlude Liars, which features an interview and conversation between writers Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin.
And then the track “Radio”, that builds on the heartbreak story of Justin with a little touch of nostalgia.
This song explores Vince’s life’s impact on music and his struggle to find someone to talk to as smart as him, possibly even creating his own loneliness, featuring a nostalgic beat and references to Blu & Exile’s ‘Below the Heavens’ and Nelly.
It’s evident that Vince uses music to cope with issues regarding his relationships — And if you’re reading this, you probably have a deep connection with music too and can definitely relate to this track.
Through this run, you’re taken on this roller coaster of emotions that moves so fast that if you blink you’ll miss the moments he nearly fell in love, pulled out a gun, or realized he was being lied to the whole time.
This is accurately made after the track Étouffée, which feels like a celebration, a true full-circle moment for Vince as he reflects on his past achievements, addressing his mistakes and highlighting the significance of his achievements for himself and his family.
Also, we need to address something — did you notice that the ending of the album transitions perfectly into the start of the album, again, everything is calculated and made with full purpose.
The record’s runtime is ‘only’ 35 minutes which is a sweet spot that doesn’t need to be longer, this is mostly due to the cohesiveness present in this project.
As mentioned before, every element, track, transition, and production was thoughtfully created with a lot of intention.
Just like Vince’s writing, yet another thing worth highlighting. It’s crazy how the artist delivers these poetic storytelling tracks, lyrical schemes, and song concepts, that are both incredibly deep and thought-provoking and yet easily approachable, catchy, and casually listenable.
This is super important as it adds a ton of replay value to the majority of the tracks here.
Nevertheless, to fully appreciate this beautiful piece of art, you need to lay down with the music, pay close attention to all the details, understand the messages and references, and catch the brilliant one-liners and impressive lyrical schemes that tie everything together.
So, if you haven’t yet, we fully recommend you take a listen to this project and let us know what you think down below.
8,5/10
Highlights:
- Little Homies
- Étouffée
- ”Radio”
Peace,
Isi & Ivo
Check out the music-related Twitter account I shared with my homie (Ivo) — @musictalkss
We post music content DAILY, if this is the type of thing you enjoy, consider dropping a follow🫶
