Videos by According2HipHop
For anyone familiar Vince Staples, there are two things that are guaranteed: razor-sharp commentary and an unfiltered critique of the systems shaping American life. He’s never been one to separate art from politics, so it makes perfect sense that his first release as an independent artist leans directly into both.
His new single, “Blackberry Marmalade,” arrives with a video that’s equal parts unsettling and, in many ways, ironic. Co-directed by Staples and Bradley J. Calder, the visual unfolds like a first-person shooter game, placing viewers inside a scenario that feels disturbingly familiar in today’s America. It opens in a parking lot, where a gunman targets Staples before moving into a Burbank-area diner and initiating the mass shooting of around two dozen Black patrons. The video closes with the shooter taking his own life, followed by a sobering quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.”
But Vince Staples isn’t simply interested in shock for shock’s sake — he’s examining violence, extremism, and the normalization of both in American culture.
Lyrically, the track reads like a critique of modern anti-establishment thinking and how opposing extremes often begin to mirror each other. From references to Ye and Princess Diana to bars about exploitation in Black music and economic struggle, Staples ties personal and political collapse together under the refrain: “Promise me you won’t gun me down.”
Fans also clocked a subtle detail early in the video: a red “Crybaby” hat sitting on the dashboard, stitched with a date on the side. Naturally, speculation has already started that it could hint at a future project rollout.
Musically, “Blackberry Marmalade” pushes Staples into new territory. The punk-leaning, rock-infused production feels like a deliberate pivot, while still carrying the edge that’s always defined in his work. It also gives him room to stretch vocally in ways listeners haven’t heard as often.
If a full project is on the horizon, it would mark his first since “Dark Times,” his 2024 release and final album under Def Jam Recordings. And if this single is any indication, the new era is probably all the better for fans and the industry alike.
