Vince Staples – Cry Baby

Vince Staples has always been a sharp-tongued observer of the present day. But Cry Baby hits a different kind of nerve. This isn’t cynicism any more. It’s despair. And every line spells out the reasons why. Even though Staples has probably rapped 100 lines by now about lies, hypocrisy, exploitation, murder, the loss of friends and his own joy, it really hits home when he says on ‘Only in America’: ‘Hopefully I’m better by the summertime.’ He won’t be any better off by the summer. Nobody will be better off by summer. Not if they’re poor or Black or otherwise different from the crowd at whose party we find ourselves.