Vince Staples’ Underwater Poetics

Vince Staples isn’t drowning. Though, at moments during his live “Life Aquatic” tour, he is accompanied on stage by LED fish, their bulging eyes staring him down as though he’s fighting for air. The Long Beach rapper, touring with support from co-conspirator Kilo Kish, stopped at Seattle’s Showbox SoDo for a ruthlessly compelling live set.

Opener Kish set her stage with a leopard-print carpet, writing desk, and telephone. And then she proceeded to skewer the status quo with her hauntingly self-aware tracks. The young artist’s delivery was both sparse and spastic – a carefully thought out cultural critique handed over in a spare 30-minute set that proved she’s smarter than everyone in the room. Her moves are part of her storytelling, as she flails and illustrates her lyricism with wide-eyed abandon, every emotion revealed on her face. When she really let loose, the crowd was putty.

Fifteen minutes prior to Staples’ set time, the venue went completely dark, and the crowd began chanting his name to no avail. As the room filled with a dense cloud of smoke – of all kinds – eventually the three giant backdrop screens lit with saturated visuals, fish swimming across the stage. Staples kicked off his set with the bombastic “Prima Donna,” the title track from his acclaimed second EP of the same name.

Like a cannonball, Staples blew threw his set, constantly in motion, an animation of his potent, experimental poetics. The 22-year-old presented an intense live persona, as he leapt through “Fire” and had the crowd jumping – and rhyming – along for “Señorita,” the Future-sampled track off his 2015 Def Jam debut, Summertime ’06. Staples made big statements, but he did it with a ruthlessly direct delivery, bare-bones staging, and gorgeously choreographed visuals that illuminated his presence rather than distracting with flash and bling.

In more serious moments, Staples grabbed the mic stand, stood silhouetted at center stage, and held it down. Staples gave us one punch to the gut after the next, his harrowing honesty and uncontrollable energy like a nexus to which the crowd was drawn. This live wire intensity and laser-sharp focus combined with imposing beats and intriguing production were exactly what Staples’ live show should be: a devastating dare to look him, and the bigger picture, in the eye.

Vince Staples Set List
Prima Donna
3230
Fire
Lift Me Up
Jump Off The Roof
Senorita
Lemme Know
Birds and Bees
Big Time
Little Bit
Smoke
Ghost
War Ready
Surf
Hands Up
Loco
BagBak
Blue Suede
Encore
Norf Norf
Smile
Summertime

Review and photos by Stephanie Dore