Vince Staples/Common Ave/Dre Mickel

Though he turned 22 just earlier this month, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples speaks in the concise sentences of someone much older. He reflects on the events in his life with an uncharacteristic distance and perspective. This incisive reflection shines throughout Summertime ’06, a masterful double album, inspired by the events of his childhood. Specifically, as the title suggests, the album focuses on the summer when the 13-year-old Staples watched gang violence shatter the innocence of his childhood. The mirroring between experience and art is at the the heart of Staples’ music. In a sense, Summertime ’06 isn’t about Staples’ experience as a teenager. Instead, it is that experience, distilled and crystallized, meant to inspire the same complex emotional responses within the listener that Staples once felt. (Thomas Garvey O'Neill)