{"id":8720,"date":"2026-06-18T19:40:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=8720"},"modified":"2026-06-18T19:40:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:40:45","slug":"album-review-vince-staples-cry-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/album-review-vince-staples-cry-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: VINCE STAPLES &#8211; Cry Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ay, I haven\u2019t heard anything from Vince Staples in a while. Musically, that is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In case you don&#8217;t remember, he did have his own Netflix show, but that only lasted 2 seasons and didn\u2019t get renewed. But now, he\u2019s back with a new album and it looks like this one is very conceptual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the singles released (\u201cBlackberry Marmalade\u201d and \u201cWhite Flag\u201d), you noticed the theme is\u2026 well, being black in America and how fucked society really is. This is further emphasized by looking at the music videos for both, with the former being a mass shooter killing everybody in a diner to and the latter painting the American flag white and then shooting it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, you can tell this is going to be an album that requires you to really dive into what he&#8217;s saying, and while this album has a 35-minute runtime, this isn\u2019t just an album to listen to once and do a first reaction video of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, let\u2019s get this out of the way &#8212; yeah, the sound is so vastly different from Vince\u2019s other albums a la <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Big Fish Theory,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> except here he went with a more punk rock direction with actual instrumentation, and it does work out in his favor. It feels very dynamic and rough and it helps with what Vince is rapping about. Like I said, the whole album is all about the oppression and injustice that Black Americans face every day which, judging by recent events, is not slowing down any time soon. \u201cGo! Go! Gorilla\u201d speaks on police brutality towards black people and how society treats them as second class while white people, who do the same heinous shit, gets off scot-free or a slip on the wrist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wAoiaj-sgvM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089632\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Damn-why-you-gotta-be-like-that-slammed-with-my-hands-behind-my-back-i-know-my-tags-are-not-updated-but-i-dont-think-you-need-that-strap\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damn, why you gotta be like that?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089632\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Damn-why-you-gotta-be-like-that-slammed-with-my-hands-behind-my-back-i-know-my-tags-are-not-updated-but-i-dont-think-you-need-that-strap\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Slammed with my hands behind my back<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089632\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Damn-why-you-gotta-be-like-that-slammed-with-my-hands-behind-my-back-i-know-my-tags-are-not-updated-but-i-dont-think-you-need-that-strap\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I know my tags are not updated, but I don&#8217;t think you need that strap<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089785\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Why-cant-you-just-talk-to-me-my-life-is-inside-your-hands-can-you-protect-it-am-i-being-harassed-or-arrested\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why can&#8217;t you just talk to me? My life is inside your hands<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089785\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Why-cant-you-just-talk-to-me-my-life-is-inside-your-hands-can-you-protect-it-am-i-being-harassed-or-arrested\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can you protect it? Am I being harassed or arrested?<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40090149\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Red-lined-gentrified-they-gave-wrist-slaps-to-them-and-sentenced-mines\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Red-lined, gentrified<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40090149\/Vince-staples-go-go-gorilla\/Red-lined-gentrified-they-gave-wrist-slaps-to-them-and-sentenced-mines\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They gave wrist slaps to them and sentenced mines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We go into \u201cThe Running Man\u201d and the theme of this song is\u2026 well, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Running Man: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">either the original Stephen King novel, the 1987 movie adaptation with Arnold Schwarzenegger or hell, even the most recent remake directed by Edgar Wright. The song mainly focuses on how networks broadcasting news heavily edit footage that makes most people look like criminals and the heavily armed government agents look like heroes (aka propaganda) and also making sure that most people trying to escape that and get the truth out often don\u2019t make it out alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking of that, it continues on with \u201cTV Guide\u201d with the message of how it\u2019s easy to manipulate people with mass media and how it shaped our worldview.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I ain&#8217;t a toy, they wanna put a nigga up in a box<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40086292\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/Richard-pryor-with-the-fire-now-they-gettin-me-hot\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Richard Pryor with the fire, now they gettin&#8217; me hot<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40086121\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/They-lookin-at-me-like-a-joke-whats-all-the-laughin-about-i-aint-no-dumbo-jim-crow-swearin-he-fly-who-gives-a-fuck-though\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They lookin&#8217; at me like a joke, what&#8217;s all the laughin&#8217; about? I ain&#8217;t no dumbo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40086121\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/They-lookin-at-me-like-a-joke-whats-all-the-laughin-about-i-aint-no-dumbo-jim-crow-swearin-he-fly-who-gives-a-fuck-though\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jim Crow swearin&#8217; he fly, who gives a fuck, though?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40086288\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/Who-really-cares-though-whos-the-great-and-powerful-oz-and-who-is-the-scarecrow-who-gives-a-fuck\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who really cares, though? Who&#8217;s the Great and Powerful Oz, and who is the Scarecrow? (Who gives a fuck?)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40087821\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/Whos-the-witch-though-power-of-the-dollar-decline-they-gave-us-crypto\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who&#8217;s the Witch though? Power of the dollar decline, they gave us crypto<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40093296\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/Let-the-coin-flip-head-or-tails-go-head-and-pick-which-one-they-goin-in-who-gives-a-fuck\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let the coin flip, head or tails? Go &#8216;head and pick which one they goin&#8217; in (Who gives a fuck?)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40091936\/Vince-staples-tv-guide\/Wheres-the-love-at-touched-by-uncle-sam-you-better-fuck-back\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where&#8217;s the love at? Touched by Uncle Sam, you better fuck back<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Big Bad Wolf\u201d does present something of a grim cautionary tale of whenever a young black child gets murdered unjustly, how long will we be passive and \u2018meh\u2019 on this until it happens to you, alongside how fighting the system can easily crush everything within you &#8211; your body, mind, spirit and mental state. Also the song does sample the chorus of Slick Rick\u2019s \u201cChildren\u2019s Story\u201d which also got sampled a few years earlier by Nas in \u201cCops Shot The Kid\u201d off his album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASIR<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Also, one verse in there does reference a certain YouTube channel that interviews rappers that makes fools of themselves and profit off of black trauma aka dry-snitching on themselves. Let\u2019s just say, it rhymes with GLAD aka the opposite feeling Vince gets from him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOnly in America\u201d talks about the glorification of America being the land of the free, liberty, freedom and free speech&#8230; and how it&#8217;s all a bunch of bullshit when those ideals are quite hypocritical and only true for those that benefited from it the most as said in the chorus:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N5vU_hcWzcE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089648\/Vince-staples-only-in-america\/You-can-live-by-the-gun-die-by-the-gun-only-in-america-you-can-lie-you-can-steal-house-on-a-hill-only-in-america-you-can-be-anything-live-out-dreams-only-in-america\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can liv\u0435 by the gun, die by the gun (Only in America)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089648\/Vince-staples-only-in-america\/You-can-live-by-the-gun-die-by-the-gun-only-in-america-you-can-lie-you-can-steal-house-on-a-hill-only-in-america-you-can-be-anything-live-out-dreams-only-in-america\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can lie, you can steal, house on a hill (Only in America)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/40089648\/Vince-staples-only-in-america\/You-can-live-by-the-gun-die-by-the-gun-only-in-america-you-can-lie-you-can-steal-house-on-a-hill-only-in-america-you-can-be-anything-live-out-dreams-only-in-america\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can be anything, live out dreams (Only in America)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDancing with the Devil\u201d deals with Vince\u2019s past being part of the Crips and living that hedonistic lifestyle, looking back at it and realizing that while it used to thrill him, it now depresses and saddens him. Next verse is how he talks about being a black artist and how the capitalistic system he\u2019s benefiting from is also the same thing that oppresses black people in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And then there\u2019s \u201cCotton\u201d, a song about how black art, trauma and survival stories are often framed as something to exploit and sell to an audience. The first verse tells that how in his life growing up, you can\u2019t afford to be \u2018soft\u2019 in that neighborhood and eventually how being surrounded by death every day can make you hollow or desensitized to you. However, it\u2019s also a critique of his former label Def Jam (Oh, BTW, this was released by Loma Vista) and them pushing that rigid, street label on him and thinking that would sell best to them. You know, having black people dance all happy and joyous while in the background, more horrific shit happens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lZwQtNo7mZE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The last track of the album (at least in the streaming version; \u201cTulsa, OK\u201d is exclusive to the vinyl version) \u201c7 In The Morning\u201d highlights\u2026. Well, the terrors of war and living in a war-torn country. Yes, this is mainly about the plight of the Palestinian\/Israeli War with those famous army chants \u2018left, right, left, right, left!\u2019; it&#8217;s how we often see violence as a common form of entertainment and whenever America is at war, Americans use it as a sense of superiority and a need to defeat their enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m not going to act in terms of content, there\u2019s nothing mind-blowing as Vince always addresses stuff like this in his records, and that\u2019s not a detriment to him. He remains consistent in talking about either his life or his surroundings. Of course, the thing different about it is the sound &#8212; is it purely rock, more rap-rock or just rock-adjacent? I mean, there\u2019s some jazzier sounds in there, as well, so I can\u2019t fully just say it\u2019s all that but it\u2019s a different sound than most and it does work here. I\u2019ve stated that my favorite Vince Staples album is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Big Fish Theory<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, mainly for how different it sounds from the previous one and it still has topics that Vince has been touching on over and over but the sound always changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now for this album\u2026 yeah, this is a fantastic listen from the commentary, the production, what Vince says on here etc. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s better than his previous album but this is another piece of good work from him.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p><b>FINAL VERDICT: <\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BUY IT. <\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Probably shell out for the vinyl if you can\u2026. Come on, don\u2019t be a\u2026 CRY BABY.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oro6c0SNLdU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Cry Baby is on Loma Vista Recordings and is available on CD, vinyl, digital download and streaming services.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ay, I haven\u2019t heard anything from Vince Staples in a while. Musically, that is. In case you don&#8217;t remember, he did have his \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/album-review-vince-staples-cry-baby\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"yes","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"MusicRecording","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[1066,631,1813,503,1067,964,295,1814,362,299],"class_list":["post-8720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album","tag-album-review","tag-cry-baby","tag-hip-hop","tag-loma-vista-recordings","tag-politics","tag-rap","tag-rap-rock","tag-rock","tag-vince-staples"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/https___images.genius.com_27847f6b78fbdd8d586f556ed5c31134.1000x1000x1.png?fit=788%2C788&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-2gE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8726,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720\/revisions\/8726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}