Vince Staples

Vince Staples is a rapper who writes with unusual economy, cutting verses down until only the necessary lines are left standing. The delivery is flat and unhurried, closer to reporting than to performing, which lets the writing carry the weight, and the productions around it swing from hard club directness to sparse, bluesy arrangements with a great deal of empty space in them. Hooks are short and blunt. Almost nothing in the records is decorative.

He has built a catalogue across roughly a decade, with Summertime '06 setting the tone and later albums such as Ramona Park Broke My Heart and Dark Times pushing further into interiority. The subject matter has stayed consistent: survivor's guilt, obligation to the people you grew up with, the distance that money and attention create, and, more recently, plain romantic hurt. Concept holds each record together rather than a run of singles.

Live, the same restraint applies. There is little theatricality to hide behind, so a set rests on delivery, timing and the force of the writing, and the sparser productions leave the voice exposed rather than buried. The songs are short and tightly built, which keeps the pacing quick without needing spectacle to carry it. It suits listeners who want rap that is written rather than performed, and who prefer precision to volume.