47. Vince Staples, Hell Can Wait
Vince Staples, born and raised around the street culture of Long Beach, wanted the art for Hell Can Wait EP to reflect his mindset during the summer between his 9th and 10th grade, and his values at the time. So he tapped Filipino artist Philip Lumbang to draw a picture based on a real live picture in front of his grandmother’s home — save the burning house, helicopter, and young boy staring at the crew — to capture this influential season in his life. The highly dramatic rendering has Staples and his friends kicking it on the matriarch’s stoop while his nephew (who actually appears in the “Screen Door” video) attentively watches on. While they are hanging out, the crew seems oblivious to the burning house right in back of them. There are no signs that the embers are singeing their back hairs. At no point in the art does any seem alarmed at anything … not even the blackbird flying above the house in the clear blue sky. The guys don’t, but the kid does. The kid is digesting it all, noting the 6500 address on the home (a nod to the 65th Street family that gave so much game to the young rap star).
A reflective Staples bears it all, unapologetically, but also seems like an artist who has no problem honestly unpacking his growth. His truth is this: life is complicated … growth is possible … and when there is so much to do to move a young boy passed even the textured circumstances of his development into a man … hell absolutely must wait.