For years fans have often wondered who exactly is Vince Staples?
The 30-year-old is kind of famous, but he’s not. He’s kind of rich, but he’s not. He’s also kind of a criminal. But he’s…not? Now the rapper and sometimes actor aims to answer those burning questions with his new Netflix series The Vince Staples Show.
In the five-part series Staples takes viewers on his daily adventures, in the city that shaped who he is today — Long Beach, California. While many may have heard of the LBC thanks to rap superstar Snoop Dogg, Staples wanted to showcase all that the picturesque beach city has to offer.
“I think visually Long beach is, well, all of Los Angeles is beautiful, but a lot of the times people don’t get to see the beauty that we see every day, and we kind of take it for granted. So I wanted to make sure that visually, it was stimulating. It felt beautiful, felt vibrant, it felt colorful,” he told HipHollywood during the recent press day.
He added, “I just wanted to showcase more of that, as it was time for me to do my own show, and see it in the way that I feel like we saw it growing up and kind of getting rid of some of the stigmas that are attached to the environment.”
In 2010 Staples exploded on the scene as part of the rap collective Odd Future. In the years following he’d release a string of mixtapes and five studio albums while also showcasing his acting chops in film and TV shows like Dope, Insecure and Abbott Elementary.
But it was in 2015, that he says he had the idea to do his own show.
“We took a couple of meetings about it and we weren’t in the place to get that executed,” he explained. “So just doing more work, doing a bunch of auditions, learning more about writing, directing, cinematography, all of these things. Doing voiceover work, smaller roles in certain films and television shows, and then also utilizing music to do kind of some visual things from music videos, shorts and things of that nature. And then we got the opportunity to kind of work with Netflix through Kenya, who was one of several people who wanted to kind of help us bring the show to fruition.”
Staples, who executive produces the limited series alongside Barris, Corey Smyth, Edelman, and William Stefan Smith, reveals that he was extremely hands on.
“I basically wrote, I think I wrote two or three episodes alone and had a couple co writes as well. And it was a very hands on experience, but the people that were involved just really elevated it to a level I could not have taken it to by myself.”
Staples also said casting the series was key to making sure the project felt authentic.
“Everybody was good. We really didn’t have any slouches as far as our cast. When doing something this nuanced, playing straight within a non-traditional comedy, you need real talent, you need these moments to stick out, and we were able to find a diverse array of people to work on the show and they all did great,” he says. “I think we had great contrast with our characters and it ended up being a perfect storm of people. It really made my job easy.”
Along with Staples, the recurring guest cast includes Vanessa Bell Calloway (Coming to America, This Is Us) and Andrea Ellsworth (#BlackAF, Gentefied). You can also expect appearances from Naté Jones, Arturo Castro, Scott MacArthur, Bryan Greenberg, and Myles Bullockas guest stars.
The Vince Staples Show is streaming now on Netflix.
