To celebrate the release of his full-length sophomore album, Big Fish Theory, Vince Staples drops off visuals for the bass-boosted album closer, “Rain Come Down.” Assisted by Ty Dolla Sign, this video finds Vince in the desert, and builds upon the themes of resignation, dejection, wealth, and distant heartache, which color Big Fish Theory. After a series of interviews, Vince has made it clear he’s making something bigger than music: he’s making modern art. Despite the dark themes and the gravity of Staples’ expression, there’s still tongue-in-cheek allusions to his hit “Norf Norf” with the consistent placement of a Sprite bottle. Even still, spinning the Sprite bottle also works as a metaphor for branding and marketing's control on your destiny as an artist.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeUOvrnOCVY&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
It’s almost as if Vince Staples feels stranded within his own success in this video. The barren desert is a clear giveaway that we’re dealing with stark emptiness, with Vince finding the industry to be hollow. Spitting the third verse in a diner and taking a sip of a cold, refreshing Sprite, he can’t even bring himself to look at the camera. The drab colors and pouring rain compound this dejected feeling. The final seconds feature Vince’s diner as a fixture in a fishbowl, with the album cover’s clown fish swimming around. With the fishbowl stranded in the same desert as the earlier scenes, we get the sense that every facet of this video is trapped within itself. The diner is just a mirage; every chance to escape is just a mirage. No amount of success will ever obfuscate the way race operates in America. It’s an endless cycle of barriers and desolation, which we can take as speaking for Vince’s relationship with everything from the music industry to the institutional barriers that he faces as a black man in this country. However you read the metaphor, “Rain Come Down” captures and emphasizes the essence of Big Fish Theory.
Big Fish Theory is out on Def Jam and you can grab it on iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play.
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