Vince Staples - 'Prima Donna' (Quick Review)

After last year's really great double album Summertime ’06 Vince Staples returns with a slightly slimmer project a seven song EP titled Prima Donna. The EP is 6 full songs with an introduction. Lyrically and beat wise, this is another solid set of songs. Staples continues to deliver lyrically with quality and has a flow that is very recognizable. He has an ear for a good beat, which he showed on Summertime '06, and continues to show here. The EP glides by with ease and the beats really deliver some super interesting sounds. The chirpy and whiny sounding noises in "Loco" are really neat and they almost have a horror movie feel to them. The Andre 3000 verse sample in "War Ready" works really well with the beat and Staples delivery is pretty cool. It's one of the big standouts from the EP.

"Pimp Hand" is one of the better performances from Staples on the EP, in my opinion. The beat could be overpowering for some rappers, but Staples really projects vocally on the song and owns it in a way that makes the song extremely successful. One of the great things about Staples is where he's been and how far he's come since those guest spots on Earl Sweatshirt's debut mixtape from the early Odd Future days. He really has become one of the better lyrical rappers of the newer generation. With Prima Donna he's followed up Summertime ’06 nicely and I think this release should solidify him as a rapper that I'm going to expect to make solid music for quite some time. I'm enjoying this EP a lot and would definitely recommend it. You can stream it via Apple Music and order it on vinyl.