Vince Staples’ The Message playlist includes a grip of LBC classics (Yarborough and Peoples’ “Don’t Stop the Music”, Snoop Dogg’s “Doggy Dogg World”, The Dove Shack’s “Summertime in the LBC”), songs that came out long before 28-year-old Staples was old enough to work a stereo. And he can’t remember when he was first introduced to them. “I can't even tell you when none of them songs came out, because they've literally just been constant in my whole life,” Staples tells Ebro Darden during a special Black History Month episode of The Message. Staples is hoping the music he makes today will go on to have a similar presence in people’s lives, and he’s studying how to best connect with the people he cares about. “I got a younger homie who— I remember when he was born,” Staples says. “Now, he kicking around the neighbourhood and hanging with homies. He's 15, and it's like, all right, how do I tell him not to do what I did, but still give him ample opportunity and allow him to still grow and feel like he's a man? These kinds of experiences that I'm able to deal with now, just from having the privilege of still being alive at this point, it helps inform the music, and it helps inform my view of the world. As long as I got time here, I'm going to keep trying to figure things out and keep trying to relay my experiences to other people.”