Vince Staples isn’t happy that his joint project with The Alchemist — which wasn’t looking like it was going to get an official release — was leaked online earlier this week.
Back in July 2021, Staples revealed in an interview that he’d recorded 30 verses for an Earl Sweatshirt joint collab with The Alchemist. At the time, the “Norf Norf” rapper told Apple Music‘s Ebro Darden that he wasn’t happy about the project’s progress.
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“Alchemist had hit me, he was like, ‘I want this project. Me, you and Earl. I only need three weeks,’” Vince explained. “I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll do it.’ So we go over there, and they get high. So I’m the only one over there rapping and I don’t smoke, so it didn’t really blend. I was getting headaches.
“So next thing I know I got 30 verses on 30 beats… I thought we was collaborating. Whatever, boom. I got 10 songs, I’m like, ‘Alright man, we finna put these songs out.’ Alchemist moves at a very cryptic pace, you know, he’s hella slow.”
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In response, ALC took to Twitter to call Vince Staples out. “Vince is full of shit. Ive have a finished 6 song EP with JUST HIM for over 3 month!! MIXED!” the producer tweeted.
He added: “Plus mad songs with him and Thebe [Earl Sweatshirt].” You can see the tweet below.
Vince is full of shit. Ive have a finished 6 song EP with JUST HIM for over 3 months!! MIXED! Plus mad songs with him and Thebe.
— Alchemist Type Beat (@Alchemist) July 30, 2021
It ultimately took Kenny Beats stepping in to save the day, but regardless, the project never officially dropped.
Fast forward to Thursday (April 13), and Staples got word that someone allegedly leaked seven tracks — six complete, and one unfinished — online. In response, he posted a cryptic tweet that seemingly implicated the producer.
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“Leaking means you’re tweaking,” he wrote, captioning a photograph of a young Michael Jackson. The MJ meme also featured the words: “You raggedy bitch.”
While Staples didn’t explicitly call out Alchemist by name, it might have appeared to some that he was trying to claim the producer leaked the project, though the motive behind the leak is unclear.
Leaking means you’re tweaking. pic.twitter.com/uYjgj2vnYR
— vince (@vincestaples) April 13, 2023
Meanwhile, it recently emerged that Staples was called “one of the smartest rappers out there” by JAY-Z.
The Compton-born rapper joined Brian B. Dot Miller and Elliott Wilson on their Rap Radar podcast earlier this month, where Miller revealed Hov’s championing of Vince and his brilliance as an artist.
“To be honest with you, full disclosure,” B. Dot began. “JAY-Z was the one who told me and put me on to your album. [He] said it was ‘beautiful.’ And he was like calling you one of the smartest, most creative rappers out there in the game right now.”
A stoic Staples didn’t have much reaction to Jay’s co-sign as he doesn’t put much stock into people’s opinions on his music, whether that be a rap deity like Hov praising his work or fans on social media bashing him.
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“If I’m impartial to if people like it, I’m for sure impartial if you don’t like it. I feel like everyone’s entitled to their opinion,” he explained. “Once you put something out into the universe and you selling something, it’s okay for people to say if they like it or don’t like it.
“That’s not really why I make music. I don’t really care how nobody feel about nothing, to be 100 percent honest. I appreciate them listening and that’s as far as it goes like how people feel.”
