Like all of us, Vince Staples is working through America. He’s not new to this. Baldwin once said that to be conscious is to be in constant rage. Vince is more fatalistic. He holds resignation in the standout chorus “White flag / I don’t wanna fight no more” and yet he cannot help but speak.
He speaks well too. The rapping in Cry Baby is never as challenging as his best work but the album is consistently propulsive and the slight move into party rap for “Go! Go! Gorilla” works well for him as does the combination of funk and politics of the song. Cry Baby is not Vince at his most experimental but it’s nice to see him a bit relaxed and he does great work in any mode.
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