Vince Staples. I have been a fan of this guy for a pretty long time now. Honestly, this is because of his heavy affiliation with Odd Future. I first heard him on Earl Sweatshirt's first mixtape and he had a very nice verse there. He continued with great contributions to projects by Domo Genesis and Mike G. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed when I finally gave a listen to one of Vince's solo projects, Winter In Prague. This mixtape was honestly very boring, even with nice production from Michael Uzowuru. Now, Vince is following that up with a surprising collaboration: this mixtape is entirely produced my Larry Fisherman, AKA Mac Miller. Will this elevate Vince to become one of my favorite underground artists and not just an O.F. collarborator? Let's see.
Honestly, the first few songs on this mixtape were really underwhelming. On the Intro, Vince just spits some nice bars, but without any passion, leading to a pretty boring listen. The beat wasn't really anything special, with a generic opera vocal covering the track. Fantoms was not that great either, but at least had a much more interesting beat. I think if Joey Fatts had a verse, this song would be a lot better. The next track, Heaven, was a nice change of pace with Mac Miller spitting a pretty solid verse, and the song also had a better hook. I still wasn't really loving the mixtape that much at this point, though. The next song, Guns and Roses, did nothing to change this, as it was just another track. Vince got a little more lyrical here, but for whatever reason, I wasn't enjoying it that much. Guns and Roses also featured a pretty lame and generic beat.
Everything changed for me once it hit the fifth song, Back Selling Crack. This song was outstanding. Vince rode the beat perfectly and sounded a lot more energized here. This hook was awesome as well, being very catchy and flowing nicely. The track becomes even more great once Schoolboy Q comes in. Q absolutely murders it here, firing on all cylinders and sounding insane. His verse was easily a highlight on the album. The other Black Hippy featured track, Killin Y'all with Ab-Soul, was another standout. Soul's verse was full of quotables and he sounded really good. Vince keeps up with a pretty solid verse. The beat was also super dark and hard hitting here. My favorite track on this mixtape would have to be Sleep. Even though Dash starts it off with a lackluster verse, Ab-Soul more than makes up for it with another great verse. Mac Miller also kills it here, with a lot of good wordplay and some funny lines. His flow was also great over his own beat. Vince has the final verse and wraps it up beautifully with an aggressive verse. All this is complimented with a grimy beat that all the rappers ride over nicely.
A few tracks on Stolen Youth did disappoint me, though. As I said, the first four songs were just okay, as was the song Thought About You. It had a slow, low-energy instrumental that Vince goes over pretty lazily. The only other tracks were ones I thought were pretty good, but nothing fantastic. Stuck In My Ways featured a sick, head-bopping beat and Vince rapped very fast and with a whole lot of aggressiveness on the Outro.
STOLEN YOUTH WRAP UP
+Vince is a very good lyricist
+His voice is nice and distinctive, and he can be aggressive at times
+A few grimy, hard-hitting beats
+Some really nice underground features, most notably TDE
-A lot of boring instrumentals from Mac Miller
-Vince doesn't spit to his full potential
Best: Back Selling Crack, Killin Y'all, Sleep
Worst: Intro
Vince Staples- Stolen Youth
8.1/10
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