Vince Staples Announces New Studio Album 'Dark Times'

Photo: Erik Carter

Vince Staples recently announced the release of his eighth studio album, Dark Times, out May 24 via Def Jam Recordings. A new era in the prolific artist’s canon, the album is 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.

In conjunction with the album announcement, Staples released the first single from the project, “Shame on the Devil,” which features him rapping over a warm, spectral beat, ruminating on how anointed his life is now, in spite of bouts of loneliness and fallouts with friends. Calling the song “a personal achievement,” Staples said

“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.”

Listen to the new single and check out the tracklisting for Dark Times 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?