Vince Staples has announced his new LP Dark Times, will drop on May 24 via Blacksmith Records/Def Jam Recordings. Along with the album announcement, Staples shares first single from the album and accompanying visual for, “Shame on the Devil.” Dark Times follows Staples’ 2022 album Ramona Park Broke My Heart

Recorded over the course of seven months in North Hollywood, the album title came intuitively to Staples after he listened to the record in full, noticing heavy motifs that kept reappearing. The album cover, featuring a faintly seen noose, was similarly intuitive. Calling the project “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.”

Demonstrating that his talent cannot be confined to one medium, Staples also wrote, produced, and stars in the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Vince Staples Show, which debuted earlier this year. Inspired by life in his hometown of Long Beach, California, the show was praised as “dark, hilarious, intriguingly frank… laugh-out-loud funny” by Entertainment Weekly, while The New York Times described it as “mordantly funny and visually arresting.” The Guardian hailed it as “a wonderfully surreal exercise in Black creativity,” adding that “[Staples] is an endlessly compelling presence,” with COLLIDER lauding it as “one of the most confident new series of 2024…never a dull moment on screen.”

Vince Staples
Dark Times
Blacksmith Records/Def Jam Recordings
Track Listing

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?

Pre order Dark Times by Vince Staples HERE