The Vince Staples Show is an excellent insight into the polarizing Long Beach artist, Vince Staples. Netflix’s newest show is a surrealist dark comedy exploring Staples’ lifestyle, experiences, and reaction to fame.
The five episode first season takes twists and turns, subverts expectations, and uses humor to smoothen out difficult topics. In this first season you’ll see Staples’s character get jumped by mascots, befriend bank robbers, and kill a father in department store.
The Vince Staples Show creates a universe within the show where anything could happen at any time. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and you’ll probably yell out “what the hell!” on more than one occasion.
Staples is known for his outlandish interviews, unique production style, and his “IDGAF” attitude, all of which shines through in his new series. His creativity is on full display throughout the series, working alongside accomplished producer Kenya Barris, the Vince Staples Show is an excellent binge-watch for anyone with a sense of humor.
HOT 97 in-house journalist, Jason N. Peters sat down with Staples to discuss the making of The Vince Staples Show.
JASON: In 2018, you released “Sheet Music” and “So What” under the name, “The Vince Staples Show?” What role did making those videos play in making this iteration of the Vince Staples show six years later?
VINCE: Yeah, it was an idea that, you know, I had previously, even years before that. You know, I took a couple of meetings on it and decided to kind of try to apply it and kind of put myself more into the environment of film and television. So from doing voiceover work to doing a couple of auditions here and there smaller roles in film and television series. Then trying my hand at Sheet Music and these other kinds of shorts that kind of dealt with somewhat of the thought process that went into the show. I think it all mattered like, you know, from being in Dope to Abbott Elementary to being in White Men Can’t Jump all these small things.
They were big to me, but just small in the scale of what the projects were. They really, really helped me understand the medium.
J: You have probably the most inventive music video I’ve ever seen. I think it was the “Fun” music video with the Google Earth concept. Have you always had an eye for visuals and that kind of led you in this direction?
VINCE: Yeah, when I first started making music, you know, a lot of the things that people gravitated towards were my visuals. And I feel like I’ve just always been lucky to be working with very, very collaborative people, people that had understanding of my ideas, they didn’t feel too big even when we were working with smaller budgets or smaller songs. And just so many people I can name Ian Pons Jewel, Spike Jordan, Calmatic who did the fun video, we work with so many people who have just been able to just be malleable with kind of my ideas and that helped me working on the show because I was able to also do that with others’ ideas and kind of bring in a good, good team of people who just were able to just, I guess blow out what we were trying to do from a small scale early on.
And a lot of that is from the experiences I had with music because people always took away the visual elements of what we did.
J: The theme of the show seems to be you trying to live your life and then outside characters put you in the center of their chaos and bullshit. How true to life is that sentiment?
VINCE: I think it’s true to everyone. I think life is something that is not as singular as we see fit, like we’re all here together and we all have to deal with each other no matter what.
And sometimes you can get thrown into another situation that you didn’t expect to be. And that’s kind of what happened throughout the course of the day. You know, you never know what a day is gonna bring you, and that’s something that we tried to kind of showcase with the show.
J: How different is the Vince Staples in the show compared to Vince Staples in real life?
VINCE: I would probably say it’s closer than,, people see with music. You know, I’m not the loudest or most,, over the top person, a lot of the time they view musicians as that. So I’ll say it’s very, very similar.
J: In episode three, it cuts to a sign that reads “the weight of the world.” And throughout the show, it does that a lot with different things. It’s apparent that you drew from real life feelings in making the show. How is the process of expressing yourself this way different from making music?
VINCE: I think the tutelage that you need is different. I think the medium itself is different. The amount of people is probably the biggest difference. A lot of time with music, it’s just me in the room with like an engineer, maybe one or two pro producers if that and with television and film, it’s, it’s a large massive set of just so many different people and it was a really, really unique and good environment to be in, you know, having other people’s energy.
Trying to make sure everyone’s having a good day while on set, making sure it’s a fun set, a safe set for everyone was like, it was a really, really, really interesting challenge and I’m really happy. I got the ability to do that.
I think the biggest difference would really just be the dynamic of the people around and the people involved.
J: All right. My time is running out, so I’m just gonna ask one question. I’m sorry that it’s not about the show. I’m a Sixers fan and you’re a Clippers fan and you talked about how terrible Doc Rivers will be for Philly. The Bucks are 1-3 since Doc Rivers became the coach. Do you think that the Milwaukee Bucks are doomed, because of this recent decision?
VINCE: I mean, I don’t know if they doom but, they got a really, really good team, but we’ll see, man. You know, sometimes doc can’t get it done, but he does have a championship.
So hopefully Giannis and Dame can make something happen. Bobby Portis, they got a really, really good team over there. They missing some defense. They should have kept Grayson Allen. I rock with him.
J: You don’t know how many times I posted the “I’m gonna kill Doc Rivers” Tweet, but I appreciate you.
VINCE: Doc Rivers had my life for living hell man. But you know hopefully he does run in Milwaukee.
J: I feel you excited for everything you got coming. Thank you for your time Vince.
The first season of “The Vince Staples Show” is now available on Netflix!