Vince Staples has left Def Jam for a new label home.
The California rapper has signed a new deal with Motown Records via the Blacksmith Recordings label. The news was announced Wednesday afternoon at Capitol Congress 2019, a yearly event for Capitol employees and major music industry figures. Blacksmith Recordings is Capitol and Motown’s new multi-genre label launched by veteran artist manager/entrepreneur Corey Smyth.
“Today, more than ever, artists are evolving their professional identities in multi-faceted ways,” Smyth said in a statement when Blacksmith Recordings label was announced in July 2019. “My mission through Blacksmith Recordings is to nurture young and new talent from the ground up and enable them to expand their vision of success. We are looking at the big picture, thinking about how a musician evolves across genres, what success looks like in the first year and a decade later and what happens after the first album, the second, and the third. Our goal is to reinforce career longevity and boundless potential in the artists we represent, while growing global brands around them.”
Vince Staples is no stranger to artistic evolution and career longevity. After breaking out with his 2013 collaborative mixtape Stolen Youth, the rapper’s 2018 album, FM!, was released to massive critical and fan acclaim.
