Vince Staples has announced the upcoming release of his sixth full-length album, Dark Times, on Monday morning (May 20), revealing that his Def Jam LP will drop on Friday (May 24). The 13-track collection is described in a release as “a muscular and revelatory body of work that refines elements of his catalog over the last decade: dense lyricism over rich, layered beats. tumultuous, wistful observations on life. finding pockets of light in a vast darkness.”
The album was previewed with the brooding “Shame on the Devil,” whose 50-second video is a split-screen with one side containing a close-up of Staples rapping his laments over the song's laconic beat . The other side of the screen depicts the shadows of a woman and child arguing in a room with a man in profile, who, at one point, removes the halo hovering over his head as Staples raps/sings, “Shame on the devil/ I An angel touched me/ The lord made me special.
In a statement, Staples called the track “a personal achievement… it's me mastering some things I've tried before that I wasn't great at to begin with. It's a testament to musical development, song structure – all the good stuff.”
A release noted that the album was recorded over seven months in North Hollywood, with the title coming to the rapper/actor “intuitively” after listening to the whole thing and noticing some recurring “heavy” patterns. “I'm Black, and that's what we're avoiding,” he said of the album cover, a black-and-white image of Staples with his eyes closed in deep thought. “We all have our things that could kill us. We all have this imminent threat.”
Dark Times is the sequel to 2022 Ramona Park Break My Heart and Staples' first major project since the February debut of the five-episode Netflix series The Vince Staples Show.
Check out the “Shame on the Devil” video and check it out Dark Times tracklist below.
Dark Times track list:
- “Close your eyes and shake”
- “Black Blue”
- “State Cheese”
- “Children's song”
- “Shame On The Devil”
- “Étouffée”
- “Liars”
- “Justin”
- “'Radio'”
- “Nothing matters”
- “Little Homies”
- “Free”
- “Why won't the sun come out?”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/vince-staples-dark-times-album-shame-on-the-devil-video-1235687547/
