US rapper Vince Staples is "alongside Kendrick Lamar one of the most recognized and accomplished storytellers / rap narrators at the moment", writes SPIEGEL. On his sixth studio album "Dark Times" (Blacksmith Records / Def Jam Recordings), the 30-year-old Californian musician refines all the elements that have characterized his catalog over the last decade: dense, melancholic lyrics, full of observations about life, presented on lush, multi-layered beats that seek niches of light in the endless darkness.