Vince Staples announced the upcoming release of his sixth full-length studio album, Dark Times, on Monday morning (May 20), revealing that his Def Jam LP will drop on Friday (May 24). The 13-track collection is described in a release as “a muscular and revelatory work refining elements that have been present in his catalog for the last decade: dense lyricism over lush, layered beats; wry, melancholic observations about life; finding pockets of light in an endless dark.”
The album was previewed with the contemplative “Shame on the Devil,” whose 50-second video is a split-screen with one side containing a close-up of Staples rapping his lamentations over the song’s laconic beat. The other side of the screen portrays the shadows of a woman and a child arguing in a room with a man in profile who, at one point, removes the halo hovering over his head as Staples rap/sings, “Shame on the devil/ I’m touched by an angel/ The lord made me special.”
In a statement, Staples called the track a “personal achievement… it’s me mastering some things I’ve tried before that I wasn’t great at in the beginning. It’s a testament to musical growth, song structure — all the good stuff.”
A release noted that the album was recorded over seven months in North Hollywood, with the title coming to the rapper/actor “intuitively” after he listened to the whole thing and noticed some recurring “heavy” motifs. “I’m Black, and that’s what we’re evading,” he said of the album cover, a stark black-and-white image of Staples with his eyes closed in deep thought. “We all have our things that could kill us. We all have that imminent threat.”
Dark Times is the follow-up to 2022’s Ramona Park Broke My Heart and Staples’ first big project since February’s debut of his five-episode Netflix series The Vince Staples Show.
Watch the “Shame on the Devil” video and see the Dark Times track list below.
Dark Times tracklist:
- “Close Your Eyes and Swing”
- “Black & Blue”
- “Government Cheese”
- “Children’s Song”
- “Shame On the Devil”
- “Étouffée”
- “Liars”
- “Justin”
- “‘Radio’”
- “Nothing Matters”
- “Little Homies”
- “Freeman”
- “Why Won’t the Sun Come Out?”
