"Stop politicking on my behalf" — Vince Staples responds to fan speculation about why he was absent from Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out show

Vince Staples has revealed the reason why he did not attend Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out show on Wednesday night (June 19). He took to X to shut down all speculations, indicating that he was busy with his tour and would have canceled it had he known about the presence of Tommy the Clown in the Pop Out show.

"In all honesty, if I knew Tommy The Clown was gonna be there I would’ve cancelled the tour. I been waiting for my moment since ‘02," he said.

Tommy the Clown is a Los Angeles music icon known for popularizing the clowning style. After appreciating Tommy's presence, Staples further urged fans to stop "politicking" the situation on his behalf and stop speculating the reason behind his absence from the Pop Out show. He added:

"Stop politicking on my behalf and enjoy the beautiful moment."

Staples released his latest album, Dark Times, in May 2024 and is gearing up to go on a tour. The singer was working on his tour when the Pop Out show took place. DJ Mustard also confirmed the same via HNHH, stating that:

"Vince Staples was overseas making the blacks proud on Juneteenth. Other wise [sic] magic would of been magic on stage."

Staples has been a supporter of Kendrick Lamar in the past but has also criticized the impact of his beef with Drake on the world of music.

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Vince Staples shared his views on Kendrick Lamar and Drake's recent beef

In a conversation with Long Beach Mayor Rex Richard in a panel on May 4, Vince Staples was asked about his views on the then-ongoing beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

In his response, Staples focused on the bigger issues Black artists have been facing in the music world and urged the audience to give more attention to them.

The rapper spoke of Universal Music Group, whom he signed with when he was 17. He highlighted how the company has shut down many of its departments in the recent past, fired the heads of these departments, and "turned them into glorified A&Rs." He also claimed that the label fired 50% of the employees, which mostly affected people from the hip-hop and R&B sections, like himself.

Vince Staples also referenced UMG's decision to remove their music catalog from TikTok earlier this year. Such things also impact artists, as record labels destroying their relationship with streaming platforms takes away money from the artists, as per the rapper.

In the context of such issues, Staples felt "two ni**as" fighting on the internet about rap was the last thing on his mind. The rapper said:

“So then we getting priced out of our contracts, we getting priced out of our imprints. There are no labels, basically, that are incentivized to sign Black music and it’s happening in front of our eyes. While Taylor Swift is fighting for people to be able to have streaming money, n***as is on the internet arguing with each other about some rap s*it. So that’s how I feel about it, honestly.”

Speaking about Drake and K Dot's feud, Vince Staples also felt that we're all "better than that" and the focus should be on Black people supporting and uplifting each other, as it is not easy for them. He wanted people to respect Black music and Black artists. He continued:

“Personally, I think we better than that. I think we deserve better than that because we’ve been saying for decades that we want people to respect Black music and Black art and Black people. I think for that to happen, we gotta respect ourselves and they don’t make it easy for us, but we gotta try to work a little bit harder at that.”

At this point, Mayor Richardson added that the focus should be on two Black artists uplifting each other, unlike what Lamar and Drizzy's beef signaled. Vince Staples agreed with the mayor and mentioned that “the dude that works at Dunkin Donuts is [as] important as Drake and Kendrick cuz it’s an ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, this was not the first time Vince Staples had spoken up about Drake and Kendrick's beef and its impact on the music industry. Back in April, the rapper took shots at Spotify for making a profit out of it by putting up billboards in New York Times Square. He said:

“Once n****s get mad, we got billboards from streamers talking about ‘Hip-Hop is a sport,’ but we ain’t never seen a billboard from a streamer that said, ‘Give that n***a his publishing back.”

Vince Staples is currently touring in North America as per the official dates of his tour following the release of his latest album, Dark Times. The album, which arrived in May 2024, was his first release after 2022's Ramona Park Broke My Heart.