Vince Staples - Cry Baby

Lucidity isn’t always a quality ascribed to great albums; there’s more often a tendency to value grandiose conceptual epics above all else. But there’s a lot to be said for a focused and sharply sculpted album; when its creator nails everything they do best, balancing depth with clarity while still exploring emotional registers.


This is exactly what Vince Staples has done here on ‘Cry Baby’. His seventh full-length sees the LA rapper find a perfect middle ground between past aesthetic polarities to end up somewhere between the futuristic ‘Big Fish Theory’ and introspective ‘RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART’. The beats across these ten tracks are bold and unique, without ever being abrasive, while Vince’s lyrics tackle a range of socio-political concerns, usually hitting their targets with piercing accuracy.


Take ‘Only In America’, where he uses both soul and a sense of sonic urgency to mirror his lyrics, which fuse personal and political via some incredible imagery: “This world’s known to break down angels / So long since I had my halo.” ‘The Running Man’ is similar in tone; an aptly-quickfire beat leads a track where both its synth melody and lyrics - “I’m rushing, I’m chasing, I’m tired / Controlled by my world of desire” - beautifully reflect the anxieties that so many people feel today.


The fact that Vince Staples is a wise, ambitious musician was never up for debate. However, ‘Cry Baby’ finds him reaching yet higher; a precision-chiselled album that’s as viscerally gripping (seriously, every beat bangs) as it rife with insight and observations. There may not be a more gripping or impactful rap album all year.