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Vince Staples Calls Out Spotify At Spotify’s Own SXSW Show

Vince Staples has become known as someone who doesn’t bullshit. Check out any interview with him, and he’ll always say what’s on his mind, often choosing to say next to nothing at all. With tonnes of performances at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin Texas, Staples used his set at last night’s Spotify House as a soapbox for the way he was feeling.

Initially digging into the punters of the festival itself, the California rapper said that, “I’m not the most polite person on stage.. I know you’re all at SXSW like ‘Let’s watch the black people rap’,” to a mostly white crowd according to The Austin-American Statesman. But by far the most unexpected comments by Vince Staples were directed at Spotify itself, who were hosting his set.

“Shout out to Spotify. Thank you for giving me this check to make up for what you’ve done to me and all my musical friends. [make sure to] listen to your favourite album 1000, 2000 times so everybody can get an album sale.”

Intense stuff, Spotify is yet to come back with a comment.

It’s not the first time that the streaming service has copped abuse from artists, with just today Jay Z pulling The Blueprint off it, and Taylor Swift abstaining from playing a part in anything Spotify related. Spotify claims “an average ‘per stream’ payout to rights holders of between $0.006 and $0.0084”, which is next to nothing really. But with the slow death of physical copies, and iTunes getting into the game of streaming rather than paying for albums, are the days of buying albums over with? People want things for cheap, and if streaming isn’t there, the next cheapest option is piracy – so is Spotify really that much of a villain? As the situation evolves, no doubt both parties will have more to say – keep it locked here till then.

Check our interview with Vince Staples here and photos live in Melbourne here

Photo: Pitchfork