If you’re looking for honesty, audacity and artistry in contemporary hip-hop, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more on point than Vince Staples. The Long Beach rapper first entered the limelight around 2010 as a satellite of the Odd Future craze — the only emcee who could keep up with Earl Sweatshirt. Since then, he’s proven himself to be among our most adroit, no-bullshit street storytellers. Over a handful of mixtapes, two excellent EPs and three standout LPs (most recently, 2018’s FM!), Staples has honed his craft to a precise science, offering penetrating insight and stark ’hood pathos in the tightest packets of rhyme you can imagine. He doesn’t pull punches or mince words in his flows, in his often-hilarious tweets or in the wise-beyond-his-years persona he reveals in interviews. Don’t miss your chance to catch Staples, one of the best rappers anywhere, as he makes his way to SA. To whet your appetite, sample the man’s work at vincestaples.com.