Vince Staples – “FUN!” Video

Vince Staples – “FUN!” Video

Last night, with only a few hours of advance notice, Vince Staples released his new album FM!. It’s a short, hard, focused piece of work, with a whole lot of production from SoundCloud-rap baron Kenny Beats and a few uncredited big-name guests. And this morning, Staples has followed the release up with a new video for the album track “FUN!” Like a whole lot of Vince Staples videos, it’s pretty amazing.

The video is structured as an extended riff on Google Street View. Watching it, we see from the perspective of someone searching through Staples’ Long Beach home turf from the safety of a computer screen. Google’s cameras pan along, catching Staples presiding over a curbside memorial, a street fight, a sex-work transaction, a burglary, a dance party, an arrest, and, in a gloriously meta touch, a rap video shoot. (The song features E-40, but the clip cuts off just as his part is starting.)

Much like Staples’ instant-classic 2015 video for “Señorita,” the clip ends with a final shot that flips the whole video on its head, implicating the viewer and saying a whole lot about the way many of us consume rap music. It’s a masterful reframing of an already-masterful video, and you can watch it below.

FM! is out now on Def Jam.

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