Vince Staples Believes He Deserves All The Grammys But He Isn't Holding His Breath : The Record : NPR
Vince Staples
Vince Staples  Believes  He  Deserves All The Grammys  But  He  Isn't Holding  His  Breath
 Vince Staples  is impossible to categorize. A Southern Cali MC who prides himself on his Long Beach bona fides while eschewing the prototypical gangsta rap tag with which he's often mis-labled  he's a natural at bucking the status quo. Yet he also sees clear divisions between art and commerce that lead him to question how institutions choose to define â or fail to distinguish â the two.
So when  Staples  found himself the subject of a recent Grammy campaign â initiated by Uproxx hip-hop editor Aaron Williams  who likened the EDM sonics of  Staples ' 2017 LP Big Fish Theory to "a post-apocalyptic pinball machine" â he was less interested in discussing whether or not his album is Grammy-worthy than he was in questioning the very construct upon which the Recording Academy recognizes and rewards genre-bending artists of color.
But  Staples ' argument is bigger than hip-hop. It's a critique rooted in the racial dynamic that has kept black artists in the industry categorically separate and unequal since the inception of "race music."
In a sense   Staples  is the kind of artist the academy tends to clamor over â a major-label signee who subverts mainstream convention. While his peers chase after collaborations with bankable trap producers  his album credits are filled with left-field collaborators Kilo Kish and Zack Seckoff  a young unknown producer largely responsible for Big Fish Theory's industrial-driven electronics.
No doubt   Staples  prizes his creative idiosyncrasies: "Hitchcock in my modern day / Where the f*** is my VMA? / Where the f*** is my Grammy?" as he raps on Big Fish Theory's "Homage."
The message is the easiest part of this whole thing. The hard part of music is designing the product and marketing the product â figuring out what it looks like  what it sounds like  what it feels like    who to sell it to and how to get  them  to believe that it's more important than  themselves . When you've figured that out  that's when you become a star.
But  yeah  let's really talk about it. If we really want to have a Vince Staples Grammy campaign  someone tell me why I can't be in every genre that my music is kind of reminiscent of? Because the argument within hip-hop is that my music doesn't sound hip-hop enough.
My only request is that it be broadened  because it's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for everything we just spoke about. It's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for a packaging Grammy. It's no reason because the conceptual nature of my cover and the way that it looked is a great idea for a compact disc. Usually people go all out and put 50 pictures and give you a suitcase full of stuff to win a packaging Grammy. But it's not really about the design of it itself. It's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for that. It's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for electronic and alternative and Rap Album of the year  because if we're pushing creativity and we're doing it get to be creative and to create new things  I don't know what's newer than what Vince Staples is doing. And that's my only conversation.
[TGT] Believes   [TGT]   Deserves All The Grammys  But   [TGT]   Isn't Holding   [TGT]   Breath
 Vince Staples  is impossible to categorize. A Southern Cali MC who prides himself on his Long Beach bona fides while eschewing the prototypical gangsta rap tag with which he's often mis-labled  he's a natural at bucking the status quo. Yet he also sees clear divisions between art and commerce that lead him to question how institutions choose to define â or fail to distinguish â the two.
So when   [TGT] found himself the subject of a recent Grammy campaign â initiated by Uproxx hip-hop editor Aaron Williams  who likened the EDM sonics of   [TGT]  2017 LP Big Fish Theory to "a post-apocalyptic pinball machine" â he was less interested in discussing whether or not his album is Grammy-worthy than he was in questioning the very construct upon which the Recording Academy recognizes and rewards genre-bending artists of color.
But   [TGT]  argument is bigger than hip-hop. It's a critique rooted in the racial dynamic that has kept black artists in the industry categorically separate and unequal since the inception of "race music."
In a sense    [TGT] is the kind of artist the academy tends to clamor over â a major-label signee who subverts mainstream convention. While his peers chase after collaborations with bankable trap producers  his album credits are filled with left-field collaborators Kilo Kish and Zack Seckoff  a young unknown producer largely responsible for Big Fish Theory's industrial-driven electronics.
No doubt   Staples  prizes his creative idiosyncrasies: "Hitchcock in my modern day / Where the f*** is my VMA? / Where the f*** is my Grammy?" as he raps on Big Fish Theory's "Homage."
The message is the easiest part of this whole thing. The hard part of music is designing the product and marketing the product â figuring out what it looks like  what it sounds like  what it feels like    who to sell it to and how to get  them  to believe that it's more important than  themselves . When you've figured that out  that's when you become a star.
But  yeah  let's really talk about it. If we really want to have a Vince Staples Grammy campaign  someone tell me why I can't be in every genre that my music is kind of reminiscent of? Because the argument within hip-hop is that my music doesn't sound hip-hop enough.
My only request is that it be broadened  because it's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for everything we just spoke about. It's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for a packaging Grammy. It's no reason because the conceptual nature of my cover and the way that it looked is a great idea for a compact disc. Usually people go all out and put 50 pictures and give you a suitcase full of stuff to win a packaging Grammy. But it's not really about the design of it itself. It's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for that. It's no reason I shouldn't be nominated for electronic and alternative and Rap Album of the year  because if we're pushing creativity and we're doing it get to be creative and to create new things  I don't know what's newer than what Vince Staples is doing. And that's my only conversation.