Vince Staples Scrapped a Whole Album with Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt
Vince Staples explains why his collaborative album with Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt never saw the light of day.
The hallmark haze of Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt‘s creative connection appears to have been a bit too much for the straight-edged workflow of Vince Staples.
In a new interview with Ebro for Apple Music, the Long Beach rapper revealed that his latest album was initially going to be a collaborative project with the “E. Coli” duo. However, the sessions didn’t progress at the rate Staples had hoped. “Alchemist had hit me and was like, ‘I want this project. Me, you, and Earl. I only need three weeks,” the rapper explained. “I’m like, ‘All right, 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,” Staples added. “I thought we was collaborating!” Staples shrugs with his signature wit.
It wasn’t until Kenny Beats began inquiring about the project that the wheels began to turn on an actual follow-up to the rapper’s 2018 album, FM!. “He’s like, ‘What’s up with the Alchemist project?’ I’m like, ‘Man, I’m just waiting on the homie,’” Staples recalls, claiming he was waiting on Al to send over stems for a month a half. “And Kenny said, ‘Oh man, just come to the house.’ Like, ‘We don’t ever make no music, blah, blah, blah.’ I’m like, ’Cause you the homie. I don’t really work with the homies, it’s weird. So boom. We go to Kenny house. We go twice a week for about two hours for three weeks. It was right before Christmas, right after Thanksgiving. Made 30, 40 songs. And then we picked eight,” Staples concluded.
The tracks selected from those sessions became the core of Staples’ new self-titled album. Released on July 9th, the rapper’s fourth studio album debuted at No. 21 on Billboard’s 200 albums chart.
Watch Vince Staples discuss the collaborative project with Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt that never was in a clip from the rapper’s interview with Ebro below. Head over to Apple Music for the full chat.