“The Vince Staples Show,” a new Netflix series released yesterday, is exactly what listeners of the rapper can expect from him. Criticism of the police force, the permanent ties to street life regardless of one’s success and the dynamics of Black families are topics explored in the first three episodes. Portrayals of superfans and celebrity cameos also enforce Vince’s standing as someone worthy of having a Netflix show made about him.
In the show and on Staples’ albums, much of the setting is located in Southern California, either in Compton, where he was born, or in Long Beach, where he has spent the majority of his life. While he has affiliated with gangs in the past, he actively denounces it these days, going as far as satirizing the lifestyle in realistic and absurd ways in this show.
“Pink House,” the first episode, begins with the satisfying process of baking donuts from scratch. Of course, they are soon purchased by a cop, who gets into his car to read “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” before pursuing Staples for making an illegal U-turn. Surprisingly, the squadron turns out to be “fans” of his music, albeit only knowing his most popular song, “Norf Norf.” Ironically, the song’s refrain, “I ain’t never ran from nothin’ but the police,” is used by an officer, as another officer exclaims: “That’s us!” By presenting the cops as both ignorant and double-sided, as they admire Vince as an artist, not as a person, it sheds light on the superficial levels that fans know their idols.
While in jail, he is locked up with multiple fans who try to impress him by singing, but to no avail, echoing the sentiment that his public figure is not as desirable as it is chalked up to be. In real life, Staples is fairly known and acclaimed in the rap scene, although he has yet to achieve any pop stardom outside of his feature on Billie Eilish’s “&burn.”
However, this amount of fame is not his goal in life, as shown in this series. A later episode sees Staples conversing with his Uncle James, played by anime voice-over artist Beau Billingslea, about everyone wanting to leech off him, including his family. Uncle James, a retired sports announcer, provides the insight that he misses the job, not the fiscal responsibility associated with it. Staples feels the same way, but it is evident he is excited to act and not rap for once.
The idea of being an artist who is never good enough is explored in “Black Business,” where Staples tries to acquire a bank loan for a business startup, but his proposal is rejected based on the color of his skin and the pessimistic outlook the bank has on so-called “entertainers.” The bank manager, Mr. Hightower, holds the stance that music artists have a finite amount of financial prosperity since they often do not diversify their assets, even though Staples is actively trying to make money outside of music. Rick Ross makes a fitting appearance to talk about the thousands of chickens he sells to keep a steady income outside of the rap game, acting as a financial guru.
The archetypal know-it-all Hightower is brought down to size when he soils himself in the robbery that takes up the majority of the episode. Staples happens to know the robbers, making him a middleman between Hightower and the robbers, as well as a barista during the robbery, funnily enough. Along with admitting that he has bosses, Hightower’s deconstruction is heightened when he listens to others only after he is in zip ties, becoming subservient to Vince instead of the other way around. The unlikeable character would have been fine if he handled Vince as a serious client.
Additionally, the sense of complacency that Hightower imagines that Staples has with his career is unrealistic for multiple reasons. For one, he has made revolutionary albums such as “Big Fish Theory” with exorbitant use of electronic beats, which is fair to mention, given the linkage between Staples’ persona in this show that is connected to his celebrity status. Despite going above and beyond throughout his discography, he humbly compares his rapping to a job where he is only putting in sufficient effort to keep listeners engaged. Furthermore, the very existence of this show exemplifies he is not like the other rappers who will fade into obscurity in the upcoming future.
“Brown Family” features a questionable B-plot about two mothers in the family reunion making macaroni and cheese, interspersed with fist fights. The displays of aggression may be over the top, except that is the fun of it. Families in violent areas can still find drama in the trivial things that society often criticizes upscale people for dramatizing. The first three episodes are never out of touch with reality, as every occurrence could have been experienced by Vince in an alternate parallel universe, but in this universe, he is parodied in his show.
This is a must-see for listeners of Staples, who has been releasing projects for over a decade now, and it is a great way for new people to find out about him. Ignoring its name, a mix of social commentary and lessons applicable to many celebrities makes this series about more than its narrow yet poignant scope of the life of Vince Staples. There are five episodes currently out on Netflix; go watch!
Rating: 3.5/5