Summertime '06

At 22, the rapper Vince Staples is already a hard-bitten realist, the kind of artist with the intelligence and poise to know that anger won’t get him half as far in hard times as tight-lipped reflection. “My feelings told me love is real / But feelings here can get you killed,” he warns on “Summertime”—a lyric as uplifting as the sinister, subtly adventurous Summertime gets. Weighty without getting preachy, tough without ever feeling cold, Staples is a rare voice.