NPR Music Tiny Desk Concerts

Vince Staples (2021x94)

: 23, 2021

At the midpoint of Vince Staples' Tiny Desk (home) concert, he gazes through the sun-soaked windows of his Hollywood Hills location and pauses. "You should see this view – I don't live here," he exclaims with pride. "I would never live here." As to why he wouldn't give in to the spoils of success and relocate to a fancy spot in the Hills or Calabasas, he explains in the lyrics of the song that follows, "THE SHINING": I could never do it / I'm too active. That sentiment, the push-pull relationship with his North Long Beach home base, is a dominant theme of his new self-titled album, which he tells NPR is "the clearest expression yet of who he is."