Happy 10th Anniversary to Vince Staples’ debut album Summertime ‘06, originally released June 30, 2015.
Vince Staples is a singular talent. He’s built in the mold of the great Southern California emcees from the late 1980s and early 1990s. He got into this hip-hop game at a young age but possessed wisdom beyond his years. He has a gift for conveying his life experiences growing up in the Ramona Park neighborhood of North Long Beach, California. He brings a unique perspective to his raps, mixing humor and clear-eyed depth of thought. He’s ascended to pretty lofty heights. And his journey effectively began with the “double album” Summertime ’06, released 10 years ago.
Staples was on his grind for years before the release of Summertime ’06.He released numerous mixtapes and became a frequent collaborator with his Los Angeles-based peers Earl Sweatshirt and other members of the Odd Future Wolf Gang collective. One of his earliest verses appeared on “epaR” from Sweatshirt’s Earl mixtape (2010), and he contributed three outstanding verses on Earl’s debut Doris (2013). Throughout this period, he was mentored by other respected Southern California artists, such as MURS and Mac Miller.
Staples was also taken under the wing of No I.D., the Chicago based producer/rapper who worked as the head of Def Jam. No I.D. supplied beats for a few of Staples’ early mixtapes and featured him prominently on Common’s Nobody’s Smiling (2014), which he produced in its entirety. Reportedly, it was No I.D. that suggested that the label package the hour-long Summertime ’06 as a double CD.
Years after the album’s initial release, Staples revealed in a tweet that Summertime ’06 was not in fact a double album in the “traditional” sense. Discs 1 & 2 were not to be taken as “side 1 and 2” of a single long player; rather each was a separate album that he recorded to stand on its own.
Despite existing as two separate albums packaged as one, Summertime ‘06 does coalesce around one idea: Staples’ at-times cryptic assertion that his life changed during the summer of 2006, at the age of 13. In a lengthy Instagram post from before the album was released, he wrote, “Summer of 2006, the beginning of the end of everything I thought I knew. Youth was stolen from my city that Summer and I’m left alone to tell the story. This might not make sense but that’s because none of it does, we’re stuck. Love tore us all apart.”
Even with all the talk of love and name-checking Joy Division songs (Summertime ’06’s album cover is a tribute to the British band’s 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures), Staples demonstrates throughout Summertime ’06 how he is his generation’s heir to Ice Cube and Eazy-E, with some elements of Scarface mixed in. He freely admits to being caught up in the dynamics of the gang lifestyle, still trying to enjoy his life as a young Black man in Los Angeles. However, he desperately seeks out means for escape and absolution, be they spiritually or chemically induced.
Staples begins Summertime ‘06 with the Dahi-produced “Lift Me Up,” rhyming not as a teenager, but as a jaded twentysomething, He’s beginning to find fame as a rapper, but already world-weary. Acutely aware of casual racism and the general obliviousness of white people, he bristles at the continued practice of popular brands to profit from Black dollars without contributing to the communities that they serve. And, like many of the best young artists, Staples speaks powerfully about the struggles of remaining aware and enjoying the fruits of his labor. “Fight between my conscience and the skin that's on my body,” he raps. “Man, I need to fight the power, but I need that new Ferrari.”
Listen to the Album:
Some of the album’s best tracks are pictures of Staples’ life as a young man, wilding out in the streets of Northen Long Beach, raising terror as a Crip. He exhibits this cavalier attitude on “Norf Norf,” a Clams Casino produced track, accepting that violence and death are going to be persistent facts of life. He resigns himself to make the most of the things, “riding around with the same shotgun that shot Ricky,” protecting his territory at the cost of other’s lives.
Staples is a bit more reflective on “Senorita,” the Christian Rich-produced first single from Summertime ’06. Here, he’s weighed down by the despair that goes along with omnipresent death and stress, trying to reconcile if financial gains are worth the cost of dealing death. “My nigga, just focus, I'm trying to paint you a picture,” he raps. “We stuck in the moment.”
Vince works hard throughout Summertime ’06 not to glamorize the gangsta lifestyle. He portrays the sights and sounds of death in intimate details on “Birds & Bees,” describing the often-inherited cycles of violence that he and his friends have been born into, desperately seeking escape. On “Jump Off the Roof,” he explores the means that he and so many others use to alleviate the stress of growing up poor and Black in the United States, from drugs to meaningless sex.
Staples’ pursuit of women makes up some of the best entries on Summertime ’06. “Loca” brings some levity to the album, as Staples assumes the role of a flirtatious teenager, trying to lay down game to a local hottie. “Summertime,” which ends Disc 1, is even better. He opts to sing, speaking as a damaged young man, yearning for love, going against his “programming” that it’s a sign of weakness. “Hope you understand, they never taught me how to be a man, only how to be a shooter,” he croons, later adding “My feelings told me love is real, but feelings known to get you killed.”
If Summertime ’06 had begun with “Lift Me Up” and ended with “Summertime,” it still would have been one of the best albums in Staples’ discography and one of the best debut projects of all time. However, the album arrived just a bit before albums that clocked in at less than half-an-hour became a commonly accepted practice and right at the close of the era of 77-minute long-players. Hence, packaging it with a separate mini album to beef up the project’s runtime wasn’t out of the ordinary.
Disc 2 isn’t quite as strong as Disc 1, but it’s quite good. As stated earlier, thematically it fits in with the album’s “story” overall. The tone is a bit more somber, with Staples describing how violence has affected Northern Long Beach, while many outsiders remain indifferent to their plight.
Staples starts Disc 2 with “3230,” an origin story. Named after the address of Staples’ childhood home (3230 Poppy St.), the song paints a bleak picture of his upbringing, in an area where the abundance of violence has a numbing effect. In the face of this, he takes the necessary steps to survive. “Living off of borrowed time, committing crimes, all organized,” he raps. “Fortress wasn't fortified, just trying to build my castle up “
Staples peeks into the damaged lives of residents of his hood on “Surf,” from pregnant teens to the boys who use them for sex. He expresses venom towards those who live their lives exploiting death and misery within the Black population for their own glory. “Just a pawn in the plan, trying to hold on,” he states. “When the smoke clear, why was the war fought?”
No I.D.’s production is central to Disc 2’s effectiveness, creating the solemn mood that permeates the tracks. “Get Paid,” the album’s second single, features layers of percussion and handclaps, accompanied by a muted flute sample. “Street Punks” is dominated by a stripped-down, thumping drum track, allowing Staples to brandish his own credentials while excoriating fake gangstas. “Hang N’ Bang” again features masterful drum work from No I.D., as he delivers booming 808s and shuffling kicks and snares, with Staples and A$ton Matthews each offering short, call-and-response based verses.
Summertime ’06 closes with two evocative cries of desperation and pain. Staples delves into gentrification and institutional racism on “C.N.B.,” simultaneously frustrated by the constant need to fight for his own survival, and exhausted from pretending that good intentions carry much currency. “Like It Is” is a powerful closing statement. He vents at the reality that often the poverty-stricken people in his community are treated like animals in a zoo, but knows that he must persevere to make a life better for himself and his loved ones. “We live for they amusement like they view us from behind the glass,” he raps. “No matter what we grow into, we never gonna escape our past / So in this cage they made for me, exactly where you find me at / Whether it's my time to leave or not, I never turn my back.”
Of course, Summertime ’06 doesn’t actually end with those formidable lines. Instead, it ends on a “cliffhanger,” or, rather, a snippet of the song “’06.” Vince delivers a hook, starts rapping, and gets cut-off mid-line. The Cartoon Network would eventually release a complete version of the song on the Adult Swim Single 2016, but that’s really beside the point.
Ending the album abruptly underscores his words on “Like It Is” and across the two albums: there is no proper closure. There are no happy endings, or sad ones for that matter. The story doesn’t end with a “Message!” Life for Vince and his Ramona Park neighborhood goes on. And he’ll continue to chronicle his experiences through his raps with a potent mix of comedy, tragedy, and insight, adding more depth of thought and layers to his complex views of the world.
Listen: