Vincent Jamal Staples (born July 2nd, 1993), better known by his stage name Vince Staples, is an American rapper. He was featured on Billie Eilish's song &burn from the re-release of her debut EP, dont smile at me.
Life and career[]
Vince was born in Compton, California. He later moved to North Long Beach, California after his mother decided she wanted to move away from the Compton area due to the high crime rates. He is the youngest of five siblings; two brothers and three sisters.
Vince released his official debut mixtape, called Shyne Coldchain Vol. 1 on December 30, 2011, via applebird.com. In October 2012, he released a mixtape, titled Winter In Prague, which was produced entirely by Michael Uzowuru. In 2012, Vince reconnected with Earl Sweatshirt, when he returned from Samoa and was introduced by him to a fellow American rapper Mac Miller, who later produced his mixtape Stolen Youth under the alias Larry Fisherman. The mixtape features guest appearances from Mac Miller, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, Da$H, Hardo, and Staples' Cutthroat Boyz co-member, Joey Fatts.
On March 13th, 2014, Vince released his fourth mixtape, called Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2. The mixtape features the production from Earl Sweatshirt, Michael Uzowuru, Childish Major, No ID, Evidence, DJ Babu, and Scoop DeVille; as well as guest appearances from singer-songwriters Jhené Aiko and James Fauntleroy.
On August 25, 2016, Vince released the seven-track EP Prima Donna, featuring guest appearances from A$AP Rocky and Kilo Kish; as well as it accompanied by a short film. On January 31, 2017, he announced a single, called BagBak would be released on February 3, 2017. BagBak would later be featured in the trailer for the Marvel Studios film Black Panther. On March 23rd, 2017, he was featured on the Gorillaz track, called Ascension from their album, Humanz. In an interview on Zane Lowe's show Beats 1, he announced his upcoming album would be called Big Fish Theory and released an accompanying single, Big Fish, which was followed by a third single, Rain Come Down on June 8th, 2017, which featured vocals from Ty Dolla Sign. The album was released on June 23rd, 2017 and received with widespread critical acclaim.
On December 15th, 2017, he was featured on the song &burn by Billie Eilish, an alternate version of her song watch. The song was later included on the re-release of her EP dont smile at me on December 22nd, 2017.