Vince Staples has spent the days since Cry Baby confusing people who wanted another rap album, and now he is bringing the confusion to your city. On Tuesday (June 16) he announced a North American tour, opening Oct. 19 at the Tabernacle in Atlanta and closing Nov. 15 at the Warfield in San Francisco, per Pitchfork. He will be backed by a live band for all 16 dates, a sound the album demands: blown-out vocals, deep grooves and hard bass, as Complex puts it.
The record arrived June 5 and has divided listeners, as HotNewHipHop wrote, since it is built on punk, alternative rock and live instrumentation instead of the straight hip-hop some fans expected. Complex calls it his most experimental project since 2016’s Big Fish Theory. Billboard’s Friday guide, noting its 10-track runtime, reads it as “a remarkably comprehensive look at the urgency, tumult and tension of present-day America.”
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Three songs got politically charged videos. The clip for “Blackberry Marmalade” is shot like a first-person shooter and was quickly age-restricted on YouTube. Staples answered on X that adults should share it with younger viewers:
if you are over the age of 18, make sure to share it with the youth around you. Our children deserve the truth.
Vince Staples, on X, Pitchfork
“White Flag” and “Cotton” came with their own videos. Watch the release-day set from Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre, the best preview of what the band will sound like on the road.
The cover, a drawing of a crying, blonde baby in an American-flag diaper, has fed a theory that it is Trump. Talking to Apple Music, Staples shut it down, as Billboard reported Wednesday.
That is not a baby version of Donald Trump. That is you, the listener, that is you as a baby. That is all of us.
Vince Staples, on Apple Music’s Radio Takeover, Billboard
He has been just as candid onstage. At the El Rey, he told the crowd, “We didn’t do much press and stuff like that.”
Tickets go on sale Friday, June 19, at 10 a.m. local time. Until then, the album sits on our best albums of 2026 so far, and in June’s best new music.
- Album
- Cry Baby, released June 5
- Tour
- 16 dates, Oct. 19 to Nov. 15
- Opens
- Tabernacle, Atlanta
- Closes
- The Warfield, San Francisco
- On sale
- Friday, June 19, 10 a.m. local time
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
