Vince Staples plans to be done with rap in two years

To most fans of the rap game, Vince Staples seems to have the world at his feet. A budding talent at just 22, with a burgeoning reputation and the game ripe for the picking.

Summertime ’06 is a definite sleeper for the best rap release this year, and proved a solid debut for such a young and raw talent. It comes as quite a surprise then, to hear Vince utter the following words in a recent interview with The California Sunday Magazine:

“You’re out of your goddamn mind if you think I’m going to be doing this music shit for more than two more years.

Why would someone so talented and young simply give away the game? It just goes to show that despite money, fame, and adoring fans, the rap game might not be the ideal scenario for everyone; it seems to be a blessing and a curse, particularly for those with such troubled backgrounds. The interview itself proves to be a brilliant introspective into Vince’s world; his past; and ultimately his future. Vince has made no secret of his gang-banging past; an atmosphere and environment that would subsequently lead to the death of a plethora of childhood friends, namely one Andrew Hutchins.

“Hutchins died in 2005, and Staples has called it one of the most important moments in his life; on his song “Versace Rap,” he says it was the day “I grew into a man.”

Vince is no stranger to the world of controversy, having recently come under fire for his public criticism of the 90’s era of hip-hop. Perhaps these comments are another way of creeping into headlines and sticking around in the subconscious.

Of course we here at Howl and Echoes have our own experiences with Vince staples; he is a mediator of sorts when we happen to make Earl Sweatshirt a little hot under the collar.

Don’t quit Vince, we need you and your humour to stick around and diffuse any future situations that may arise. Don’t make us beg.