Summer 2026 continues to shape up as a solid summer for hip-hop. With recent projects from Earl Sweatshirt x MIKE x SURF GANG and Yeat, and imminent releases from Isaiah Rashad, Drake, and now Vince Staples. Over the weekend, Staples shared his long-awaited return to the scene with his first single in almost two years, “Blackberry Marmalade.”
About two weeks ago, the rapper sent out an email blast to fans updating them on his new private Discord server, creating the channel as a way to “improve the fan experience.”
He didn’t share too much else in that initial message, aside from the ominous: “Stay tuned, because there will be both hijinks and shenanigans…. I will be back sooner than you think.”
And indeed he was, when Saturday morning, Staples took to Instagram to share his first-ever studio single since he dropped Dark Times in May of 2024. Still not yet on streaming services, “Blackberry Marmalade” harkens back to Staples’ old sound, leaning into a guitar-heavy beat, and premiered alongside a striking Bradley J. Calder-co-directed music video.
Staples leads the first-person-shooter-style visual, which takes the POV of a faceless mass shooter, with the rapper attempting to escape the scene. After the unidentified shooter commits mass murder inside the infamous, frequently-used-as-a-film-and-television-set Burbank eatery, Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, and then commits suicide, a Martin Luther King Jr. quote flashes across the screen. Lifted from Letter from Birmingham Jail, it reads, “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.”
A detail that viewers were quick to pick up on in the opening thirty seconds of the video is a red cap resting on the dashboard of Staples’ car. “CRYBABY” reads the text stamped across the middle, with “June 5th” written on the side.
Expect “Blackberry Marmalade” to land on all streaming services next week, and stay tuned for more updates on CRYBABY‘s forthcoming release.
