Vince Staples Planned to Make a Project With Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt Before Linking With Kenny Beats (UPDATE)

UPDATED 7/30, 11:27 a.m. ET: The Alchemist took issue with the comments Vince Staples made on Apple Music 1’s The Ebro Show.

”Vince is full of shit.,” the Alchemist said in response to Vince’s remarks about their collaborative tape with Earl Sweatshirt. “Ive have a finished 6 song EP with JUST HIM for over 3 months!! MIXED! Plus mad songs with him and Thebe.”

Vince later responded on Twitter, writing, “I offended Alchemist the other day in that Ebro interview he don’t just be high in the studio sleeping. He be high in the studio making beats!”

Vince Staples’ new self-titled album was entirely produced by Kenny Beats, but he almost went in a different direction for his latest.

In a clip for his upcoming appearance on Apple Music 1’s The Ebro Show, the Long Beach rapper co-hosted a two-hour special and provided some context behind how the album came together. He wasn’t set to make a project with Kenny Beats, who also extensively worked on Vince’s 2018 release FM!, since he was looking do a collaborative project with both the Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt.

“You know, it’s crazy. I’m going to tell you the truth. This a Ebro exclusive, right? Alchemist had hit me and was like, ‘I want this project. Me, you, and Earl. I only need three weeks,’” Staples told host Ebro Darden. “I’m like, ‘All right, I’ll do it.’ So we go over there, and they get high. So I’m the only one over the rapping and I don’t smoke, so it didn’t really blend. I was getting headaches. So next thing I know I got 30 verses on 30 beats…I thought we was collaborating!”

Nothing really came of the project at the time, but that’s when Kenny swooped in and invited Vince to come record something with him instead.

“Alchemist moves at a very cryptic pace, he’s hella slow,” said Staples. “Then I get to the point I’m telling Kenny, I’m like, ‘Yeah, man.’ He’s like, ‘What’s up with the Alchemist project?’ I’m like, ‘Man, I’m just waiting on the homie. You feel me? You know, we’ve been getting these stems for a month and a half. It’s all good.’ And Kenny said, ‘Oh man, just come to the house.’ Like, ‘We don’t ever make no music, blah, blah, blah.’ I’m like, ’cause you the homie, I don’t really work with the homies, it’s weird. So boom. We go to Kenny house. We go twice a week for about two hours for three weeks. It was right before Christmas, right after Thanksgiving. Made 30, 40 songs, and then we picked eight.”