2.
Vince Staples
Summertime ’06
Producers: No I.D., DJ Dahi, Clams Casino, Christian Rich
Artium/Def Jam
“F*ck your dead homies, run your bread homie,” is the first line of the biggest song off Vince Staples double-disc debut album, and it sets the tone for what would be a pristine lesson in bare bones storytelling. Staples understands what’s going on around him, and has an idea as to why, and how he could help, he just doesn’t care to tell you. Summertime ’06 isn’t filled with political commentary and inspirational hood tales. It’s instead, a dead-pan journal of life in Long Beach. The good, the bad, the ugly and the heinous. “Folks need Porsches, h*es need abortions,” is just another of the eye-popping descriptions Staples offers, as if he’s being interrogated about his neighborhood and he’s answering two pressing detectives with straight-faced candor. Over No I.D.‘s stripped-down instrumentals, his voice sears sharply with every chorus and couplet, and at the end of Summertime ’06, you may not know how to fix the youth, but you’ll sure as hell know what they’re going through.