Vince Staples is just days away from the release of his self-titled album, sharing its latest single, “Are You With That?” to not only build buzz for the project but to also show off his intriguing artistic growth. Usually known for pairing his fatalistic lyrics with doom-ridden, menacing soundscapes, Vince takes a different tack with “Are You With That?,” hum-rapping a reflective meditation on the Pyrrhic choices that often face folks who grow up the way he did over an upbeat, almost nostalgic tune that belies the paranoid subject matter.
Vince explained the stylistic switch up to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe as he premiered the new song, admitting, “I was just having a lot of conversations with a lot of people around me… and people always say, ‘Oh, you used to always say these stories and this and that, and I don’t notice much about these specific things. Why don’t you put it into the music?’ And it’ll be stuff that has been in songs for years. And then I realized the backdrop wasn’t right for certain things I was saying or vice versa. I feel like [Vince Staples] is kind of very descriptive and distinct… it’s not a bunch of glory stories or things like that, I guess it’s just more personal.”
Listen to “Are You With That?” above. Check out Vince’s previous Vince Staples single “Law Of Averages” here.
Vince Staples is due 7/9 on Motown. Pre-save it here.