Tyler, The Creator's Call Me If You Get Lost Tour has invaded New York City, and Vince Staples - who opens the show alongside Kali Uchis - stopped by Peter Rosenberg's loft for an interview earlier this week.
Within an hour of their conversation, Staples slammed record labels for capitalizing on the catalogs of dead rappers and finding “money in the violence” when he believes that wasn’t the case in decades prior when “violence ruined the money.”
“I feel like it was more protected,” he explained around the 44-minute mark. “When you hear N.O.R.E. and all those other people talk about the role that their A&R’s and executives had in their life, moving them out and doing certain things for them, like when Snoop talks about Master P moving him out to New Orleans. I don’t think anyone’s doing that anymore. I think they see the money in the violence. Back then, the violence ruined the money.”
Later, the Long Beach native touched on how labels open up marketing and radio budgets after an artist passes away so they can fully capitalize on his creative output.
“It’s money in it and they gonna keep selling it and we gonna keep perpetuating it and we gon’ be hurt when somebody dies,” Staples continued. “I don’t necessarily know if they care. If they did, man the album ready in four weeks once you die. You get more press on the album after you die…
“When it comes to these systems, they look at you like, ‘Oh, you’re dead, now we got something to move with… To the people that’s running music, just treat these people with humanity. You’re worth something before you die.”
Watch the full interview below.