Vince Staples talks friendship with Mac Miller in new interview
“He gave me advice but also opportunity"
By Joe Goggins
Vince Staples has reflected on his friendship with the late Mac Miller in a new interview, which you can watch below.
Talking to Peter Rosenborg on the New York hip hop station Hot 97, Staples discussed the early support that he was lent by Miller, who died of an accidental drug overdose in September of 2018. “He gave me advice but also opportunity, I would say is the easiest way to put it,” he said. “Like, ‘You should be doing more music, but I’m also gonna help you with the beats.'”
“And I’m not gonna charge you, and I’m gonna take you on tour, and I’m gonna kind of help you figure out how tour goes, and I’m gonna make sure you don’t have any expenses on tour,’” Staples went on. “And that kind of just put me in a good position to be set up.”
Staples went on to reveal that his close bond with fellow rapper Schoolboy Q came about when he was introduced to him during a visit to Miller’s house. “I always appreciated that, him giving me a relationship with Q. I met him at his house, I never met him before. I ended up going on tour for Q’s ‘Oxymoron’ album and Q helped me learn about tempos and all that comes from Mac.”
He also recalled meeting a slew of other hip hop figures at Miller’s Los Angeles abode. “I met a lot of people at Mac’s house. I met [Ab Soul] at Mac’s house. I met Thundercat at Mac’s house. It’s honestly too many people to name, because everyone was always over there. But his studio was a very interesting place in a sense of who you could run into. Just the relationships he had with other people made it a good environment. I done seen Future at Mac’s house.”
Staples made similar comments about the importance of Miller last year during an appearance on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs podcast, saying that his late friend refused to take royalties from the 2013 mixtape of Staples’ that he executive produced, ‘Stolen Youth’. Staples’ most recent release, his self-titled fourth album, met with acclaim on release last July. He’s set to follow it up this year with another record, ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’.