Vince Staples
“I have questions about life, and I make things to get to those answers.”
Rapper Vince Staples plays a semi-fictionalized version of himself in “The Vince Staples Show,” debuting on Netflix on Feb. 15. The comedy, which skewers celebrity culture and depicts Staples’ surreal adventures, comes after roles in the films “Dope” and “White Boys Can’t Jump” and series like “Insecure” and “Abbott Elementary.”
• Your character’s relationship with money is an important theme of the show. Why did you want to explore that? It’s a big part of what we deem to be celebrity, and it’s extremely subjective. You ask a lot of people who know me personally, and I’m hyper-successful and I’ve made it to the upper echelon. But most people who live in the world don’t know who Vince Staples is. I think that’s a very interesting thing as far as how we perceive success or fame.
• Many of the episodes start in reality but take surreal turns. Do you often find yourself in strange situations? My life is weird. Highlighting that was important for me, especially with the things that I’ve always watched and loved. I’ve been inspired by playing with that idea of what actually is happening, what’s not, what’s reality and what is more heady. It’s a cool take on what people would perceive this show to be.
• What series were inspirations for your vision? Everything that you see and everything that you digest affects you, whether you know it or not, right? As a kid, I remember watching “The Andy Griffith Show,” and it had that absurd normality. Then “The Twilight Zone,” “Kidding,” “Barry.” The Coen brothers’ films and David Lynch as well.
• Do you feel more creative these days when you’re making music or television? My viewpoint of creativity is just that I have questions about life and I make things to get to those answers. So even though the processes are different, it’s the same approach mentally for me. But I think the difference between film and music is just how many people go into filmmaking, and I appreciate that, because with music, it could just be me in a room with myself, or with the engineer and one or two other people.
• Kenya Barris produced your show. What was your collaborative process like? Kenya was very helpful because he just let me do what I was going to do. He leveraged his name and relationships just to say, “Give this guy a chance.” Just having that kind of support from someone who has had that kind of success was very, very appreciated.
• Were you ever worried that your series might get lumped in with “Dave” or “Atlanta” as just another show about a rapper? That has never been a bad thing to me, because those shows are extremely successful. People comparing you with things that have been hyper-successful can’t hurt.
• Would you like to do a second season? Do you already have ideas in mind? Absolutely we would love to continue, if possible. What we’ve done has been singular and unique. I haven’t seen anything play with so many different ideas. It’s a commentary on the world around us and how we deal with certain things, and as long as there’s more life to live, you can always adopt that format.
• Where are you musically at this moment? Are you working on a new album? We’re always working on music, we’re always working on everything, but for right now, I’m just really excited for this show to come out and see how people feel about it.