The underground hip-hop album that changed Vince Staples’ life
Various artists have inspired Vince Staples throughout his career, citing favourite albums from Snoop Dogg, Joy Division, Lauryn Hill, and Amy Winehouse. However, one project stands out more than most, going as far as to say the underground hip-hop album changed his life completely.
In July 2007, when he was 14 years old, the Long Beach rapper was introduced to Blu and Exile’s Below the Heavens for the first time. The collaborative album from the rapper/producer duo is a cult classic among hip-hop fans, including favourite songs like ‘Dancing in the Rain’ and ‘First Things First’. It was also some of the earliest recordings of Miguel and Aloe Blacc, two singers who appeared on the album and went on to have successful careers in the spotlight.
Hearing Below the Heavens was so significant for Staples that he rapped about coming across Blu and Exile’s gem on ‘Radio’, a highlight track from 2024’s Dark Times album, his last release on Def Jam. In the first verse, he reminisces about his younger days of listening to the radio in the car with his father. In the same breath, he also revealed that Nelly was his favourite rapper until he was 12 or 13 years old, until he found Blu.
He raps in the song, “I miss the radio/ Big Boy in the mornin, zoned in, waitin’ for my favourite song (My favorite song)/ Ridin’ with my pops (Yeah), in the front seat/ Pull up to the block, with the real Gs/ 92.3, 94.7 The Wave (The Wave)/ I know my real ones from the ghetto relate (Relate).
“I know they finna play some Nelly today (Some Nelly today, yup)/ My favourite rapper ’til I hit seventh grade (Woah, woah)/ And Eron played Below the Heavens and everything changed (Everything changed)/ A better day was just a stone’s throw away.”
Blu and Exile continued their creative partnership with several more albums, including 2012’s Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, 2020’s Miles: From an Interlude Called Life and 2024’s Love (the) Ominous World. In the almost 20 years since Below the Heavens, the pair have remained mainstays in the underground rap world, with many artists crediting Blu as an inspiration. Considering Staples is also from California, it’s no wonder he’s fan.
Staples has spoken about his influences in the past, praising Kanye West’s debut album The College Dropout as a childhood favourite. “I heard College Dropout in sixth grade,” he told The Guardian. “He’s an artist, where there’s no trajectory, and you can make whatever you want. We call musicians artists, but we don’t treat them like they are, because you can’t tell an artist what to do.
“Imagine walking into a museum and telling Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Robert Longo, Jeff Koons: ‘You should have done this different. I would have used red paint.’ Do you know how crazy they would look at you? I would never in a million years question someone’s craft. I appreciate it for what it is.”