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- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Jun 30, 2015This record is bold, uncompromising, and one of the best and most important in its genre to come out in an already exceptional year.
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Jul 20, 2015Splitting this weighty and rich effort into digestible chunks, the album's physical release comes on two separate discs, making Summertime '06 an artistic triumph wrapped in conceptually fitting package.
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Jun 24, 2015[A] promising, unapologetically dense debut.
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Jun 30, 2015Vince Staples goes all-in on his sprawling double-LP commercial debut, and the returns are decent if not world-beating.
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Jun 24, 2015Although, it's a bit too long, and suffers from some peaks and valleys, it's a very solid project overall.
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Jul 1, 2015Former Kanye mentor No I.D., DJ Dahi, and Clams Casino handle production on the album, but they work together with Staples so that the seams between the different dreams, hallucinations, memories, and nightmares don’t show.
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Jun 24, 2015Vince sounds more alive on this album, that coldhearted monotone has found a bit of hope.
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Jun 26, 2015Summertime '06's coming of age tale is complemented perfectly by production that finds the nuance in Staples' stories and matches it, couching Staples' rhymes in a way that the streets can understand best.
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Jun 30, 2015No I.D. and company have helped him make music that’s both uncomfortable and lived-in, and Staples sounds more himself inside of it than ever before.
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Jul 2, 2015Staples has so much to say in Summertime '06 that it’d be impossible to fully dissect in one listen, and his ingenious phrasing makes for a constantly amusing variety of vignettes. A record is only as good as the music that accompanies, though, and collaborative producer No I.D. delivers in spades and then some.
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Jul 2, 2015Like so much of his work, Staples lures us in with stylized storytelling and production (here, primarily overseen by No I.D.) but then hits hard with a jarring line like "They found another dead body in the alley."
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Jun 30, 2015Summertime '06 is breathtakingly focused, a marathon that feels like a sprint.
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Jul 6, 2015Summertime ‘06 is the kind of coming-of-age story that’s common to hip-hop, but Staples delivers his account with a furious passion and refreshing insight.
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Jun 30, 2015It may not be the most talked-about rap record of the year, but it probably deserves to be. Long live Ramona Park.
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Jul 21, 2015Summertime '06 is extremely cohesive, but occasionally tiptoes on being monotonous.
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Jun 30, 2015It adds up to a hard-hitting 20-track portrait of life and love in a mad city.
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Jun 30, 2015Virtually every song slaps like crazy.
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Jun 24, 2015While unrelentingly committed to his personal story, Vince rapturously integrates dense and conscious-filled narratives of his inner life, packaged vibrantly over layered and unpredictable production executively produced by No I.D with support from DJ Dahi, Clams Casino and Christian Rich. Among 20 tracks, there's no filler to be found.
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Jun 30, 2015It’s a major triumph disguised as a minor one--60 minutes of lean, inventive, important rap music that never pats itself on the back for being any of those things.
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Jul 9, 2015In a year of impressive solo rap albums, Staples has managed to create one that’s arguably the most idiosyncratic of the lot.
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The SourceAug 4, 2015When it's a;l said and done, Summertime '06 will be remembered as one of--if not solely--2015's best. [Jun-Jul 2015, p.87]
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Jul 8, 2015The album may sprawl too widely, but its second disc makes a strong argument for the continuity and self-awareness of the whole package.
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Jun 30, 2015It's a vital entry from a burgeoning new star.
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Jul 6, 2015It is, simply, one of the best rap debuts of the year.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 269 out of 292
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Mixed: 12 out of 292
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Negative: 11 out of 292
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Jun 30, 2015
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Jun 30, 2015
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Jun 30, 2015