Vince Staples Rejects The Typical Rapper Lifestyle

Vince Staples is among a strong class of new West Coast artists making their presence known in the game. Earlier this month, Vince’s name popped up in even more headlines when he released the second installment of his Shyne Coldchain series. The Long Beach rapper decided to rock this one solo, opting to have fewer rap features to show his chilling lyricism over stark production. We caught up with the 20-year-old MC to discuss the moment he wanted to become a rapper, his affiliation with Odd Future, and why he hates collaborating with other rappers.—Eric Diep

XXL: You’ve been on your grind for a while. How does it feel to be recognized in the game?
Vince Staples: It’s the same. I specifically don’t care about that type of stuff. As long I am doing what I am doing and I know I am doing it right then nobody else really matter. It’s on either side of the board. It’s really not a big deal. If you doing something wrong then you probably should be worried. But if you're doing something right then it's only a matter of time until it happens.

Was Snoop Dogg someone you looked up to as a rapper?
Never. Cause Snoop was Snoop Dogg. I wasn’t trying to be no rapper when I was a little kid, or even up until recently. I wasn’t trying to be a rapper while I was rapping until I had to really put my mind in that frame. Before that, I didn’t really have no rapper heroes or anything like that.

What was the moment you knew you could make rapping a career?
When I started getting paid. [My first check] was recently, like 2013. Before that, I wasn’t getting paid at all. Then I was like, "Alright, this is cool." You need initiative, no matter what you are doing, period. Rap is full of people, it’s like an attention-getting sport for a lot of motherfuckers. I just ain’t never been like that. It really never was my forte. That didn’t matter for me. “Oh, you got this many Twitter followers.” That’s enough for a lot of people—especially now. Fan success equates [to] Internet followers. I never cared about that shit. That shit weird to me. That shit the police to me. I don’t want a bunch of motherfuckers know what I'm doing at all times. So I wasn’t really fucking with it in that sense, but as soon as I knew it could actually do something for me, that’s when I really focused on it.

It sounds like you don’t really want to be a rapper.
It’s not that, it’s just you really gotta look at the way this shit is now. It’s not appealing. Everybody doing shit for the wrong reasons. No matter what they are doing, motherfuckers is getting high to look cool. You just gotta really think about that.

What are your reasons for doing this?
I gotta take care of my family. I got a place in it as far as I can actually do something. I have an opportunity to do something that would matter to a certain demographic of people that I know nobody cares about. You know what I mean? Like, why not? It would be stupid to waste that opportunity, because if somebody wasted that opportunity to do something for me when I was growing up, I would have been like, fuck that nigga. Just for the simple fact that you another motherfucker that care for yourself.

Are you an outcast in hip-hop? You seem to fit with Odd Future, Earl and them, who are a little more separated than everybody else.
Honestly, I don’t have a really strong relationship with none of them. Earl and Mike G are my homie homies. I done known them since, not younger, younger, but I just recently met them when I started making music. But I'm really not that social. I wasn’t really that social [of a] person coming up. I be in my own lane. When people are you friends, obviously you have something in common with them. You got people like Mike and people like Earl. The Internet. People that I am actually cool with. I never really looked at that as a music relationship, like people say this and that. Me and Earl have literally four songs. And only three of them are out. We only have four songs. Not like we have a vault of music. We don’t make music together—that’s my homie.

I got more songs with Mac Miller than I got with Earl. I got a gang of songs with Mike G. At the time when Earl was gone, I was kicking it with Mike G because I wasn’t trying to be in trouble. I was in L.A. cause I can be in L.A. and there would be no problem. Nobody fucking know me in L.A. cause I am not from L.A., so it was a different experience for me. We just happened to make a lot of songs at the time.

I don’t really work with nobody as far as music, it's my own thing. It’s funny saying that because I know I got a lot of collaboration projects and things like that. But that’s just how it happened. All them projects come from, “Why don’t you make more music? We should make some music. Come on.” And then we make a fucking mixtape in three days. And everybody’s like, “It’s crazy how you can do that that fast," and shit like that. It’s really just, I don’t be on it like that. It’s easier to pump out [songs] when you are not doing it every single day and living and breathing it, so to say how people do.

So you take a different approach to making music than most rappers. You do it when you feel like it.
I mean, I’m still young. I’m barely 20. I have to live, you know what I mean? I made my first song when I was 15 and I didn’t make another song for months. I’ve been living my life, life while rapping. It was never no, "I’m going to actually rap and really take my time to focus on it." I never really looked at it like that until recently. Which I am glad I do now. It’s a very, very good thing that I did that, by the way, to start really focusing on it and whatnot. Before, I was just living. I didn’t want to worry about no rap. You’re not getting paid and you not really getting nothing from it. You still growing up. It’s not going to be the forefront of my shit. I had it to the backburner in the foolish manner. It probably wasn’t smart to do that, but I got where I am now, so I really don’t look down on it.

Did rap keep you out of trouble?
Rap didn’t keep me out of trouble until now. The majority of trouble that I was getting into was while I was still doing rapping 'cause it wasn’t that really of a big deal to me. There are motherfuckers to this day that I know[n] my entire life that have just heard the song that I did. That didn’t know what I was doing for three or four years, 'cause I wasn’t making a big deal. Motherfuckers really walk and say, “I’m a rapper. How you doing? I’m a rapper. My name is this.” I just tell niggas my name is Vince to this day, and I don’t tell them what I do or nothing. Even in places like [the XXL office]—“How you doing? I’m Vince.” I got to get out of the habit, but that’s just the type of person I am.

You’ve collaborated with a lot of people on your past projects. Do you prefer working with people you know or don’t know?
Production, I don’t really care, because I don’t want them around when I am working anyway. People just like to play. It don’t take me no time to make no music. The motherfuckers is around and they want to play and talk and all this other shit. I'd rather not do that. I'd rather focus and get in the zone with my music. I wouldn’t say it's serious, in a sense. It’s not. I don’t really like to be in that mood when I'm making my music.

But I don’t like rapping with people at all. I don’t care who you are. I don’t like rapping with Earl. I tell him all the time—I don’t like rapping with you. I hate rapping with Mac. Ab-Soul is the worst nigga to rap with. He will make you rap all day, 'cause he don’t stop. Period. He don’t ever stop. At any time of the day, he knocks shit out. We be at Mac Miller’s studio and motherfuckers be in there. He raps all day and if he didn’t, he just gonna look at you and he'll sit by you and just tap you like, "What’s up?" I’ll be just like, "That’s all I can let go." That’s pressure. Not even pressure in a bad way—“Aw, I ain’t got verses.” I don’t really do that all day. Every single person you see me working with really, really love that shit. So I can’t work with people that’s doing it for the wrong reasons. I don’t want to be around them and shit. I like being around people like that, because that’s something I really didn’t have when I was first started making music. That’s what I really appreciate the most.

Previously: ScHoolboy Q Is Going On Tour With Vince Staples And Isaiah Rashad
Review: Vince Staples Serves Up Tales Of The Streets In Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2 Mixtape