Vince Staples Provides the Antidote to Bloated Hip-Hop Albums With Guest-Heavy EP ‘Prima Donna’

Matt Matasci

With the just-released EP “Prima Donna,” Long Beach rapper Vince Staples reasserts himself as a powerful force in hip-hop. Featuring guest appearances by Andre 3000, A$AP Rocky and Kilo Kish, and accompanied by a short film directed by Nabil Elderkin, the album is a lean collection marked by ear-grabbing production and Staples’ excellent delivery and lyrics.

“Prima Donna” opens with the austere, troubling “Let It Shine.” Less than a minute long, a gun cocks before Staples, muttering the chorus of “This Little Light of Mine,” is suddenly cut off by a shot. This segues into “War Ready,” featuring the unmistakable Southern rap legend Andre 3000, who drops some compelling lines before handing the mic to Staples, whose vocals shine on the EP’s first actual song. Despite James Blake’s stellar production, the two MCs steal the show, with Staples addressing the social and racial inequality America still faces: “Heaven, Hell, free or jail, same shit / County jail bus, slave ship, same shit / A wise man once said that a black man better off dead.”

Blending a psychedelic-rock stomp with traditional rap, there are few songs that sound like “Smile,” the album’s first single. Lashing out at the music industry, Staples details the nastiness he sees from executives while lamenting the fact that he can never go back to the gangster lifestyle he left behind in his LBC hood of Ramona Park. Many of the songs here feature an outro with the music fading out and Staples singing alone. On “Smile,” he hammers home the isolation he feels by repeating over and over “Sometimes I feel like giving up.”

“Loco” features rapper and artist Kilo Kish, who lends her sensual vocals to the biggest party anthem of the album. Despite being one of the EP’s weaker cuts, the song begs for a club remix, making it a strong candidate as one of the most recognizable songs from the collection.

The foil to “Smile” comes with the title track, which features another huge name in rap, A$AP Rocky. The song is all about fame and fortune and the overwhelming pressure that comes with it – so much so that he feels like he’ll inevitably pull some real “prima donna shit” like Nathan Williams’s infamous 2009 meltdown during Wavves’ set at the Primavera Festival. Also featuring an a cappella conclusion, Staples takes a different stance on “Prima Donna,” declaring “I just wanna live forever.”

“Pimp Hand” continues the braggadocio with more boasting about Staples’ place at the top. The singer also declares he owes nothing to the older generations who are completely out of touch with the line “It don’t add up ‘cause the Crippin’ not the same.” The album concludes with the glitchy beat of “Big Time,” another song denigrating the legends of gangsta rap by calling them soft and questioning their so-called “life of crime.”

The back-to-back cuts that conclude “Prima Donna” stand as proof that Staples believes the influence of classic gangster rap has faded from contemporary hip-hop. With a new generation of rappers born after the early 90s G-funk explosion and the subsequent East-West feuds, this notion may not be completely inaccurate. Along with A$AP Rocky, Chance the Rapper and other newcomers, Staples is leading the new generation’s charge to the top of the rap kingdom.

“Prima Donna” is available on Apple Music Aug. 25.