Vince Staples: "Get Paid" [ft. Desi Mo]

Major label hip-hop debuts are the play-it-safe capital of the music universe these days, but Summertime ’06 presents Vince Staples casually burning up the rulebook and trying something dangerously different. “Get Paid” typifies the new direction: No I.D.’s beats shuck all the pieces that don’t drive the groove forward, settling for a paranoiac blend of old school break beat funk and middle aughts Neptunes minimalism, while Vince, never one to mince words, finds a new beguiling snarl in the maelstrom.

Staples’ newfound vigor could be mistaken for glee if it weren’t for the details of the story: It’s all about money and women, but the money’s hard to come by, pried from armed adversaries and addicted custies between skirmishes with the law, and the women are every bit as cunning and entrepreneurial as the men courting them. Most gangsta rap is adept at celebrating the spoils of war, but the good shit treats every bit of luck like a fleeting lunch break between desolate days and dark nights.

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