Vince Staples Addresses Theory That ‘Cry Baby’ Artwork Represents Donald Trump: ‘I See a Lot of Conversation’

Vince Staples has cleared the air over the album cover of his latest set, Cry Baby, which features a drawing of a blonde-haired white baby crying while wearing an American flag diaper.

The Long Beach rapper and actor recently told Apple Music the meaning behind the cover and stressed that the baby depicted isn’t meant to represent President Donald Trump. “I see a lot of conversation about the cover,” he said during his Radio Takeover. “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.”

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Staples added, “That’s the socio-political systems in which we adopt and complain about at the same time. And as we complain and as we operate within these things without wanting to break apart from them, you are feeding the baby, the beast, so to say. And this album is about the different ways in which you can do that.”

Released on June 5, Cry Babyhas sparked a lot of conversation around not only the artwork but the politically charged subject matter, with fans split on the album’s genre-bending sound.

Staples spoke on the album’s alternative leanings and his frustrations with the country and the music industry in general during a performance at the El Rey Theatre in L.A. “We didn’t do much press and stuff like that,” he told the crowd. “We just wanted to come and play the music ’cause I’m sick of f—kin’ talkin’. You do the press run, you tell jokes and s—t but like, ain’t nothin’ f—king funny. You know? Not to me at least, maybe to you.”

The rapper continued by revealing that he’s been frustrated with the music industry since he flirted with different genres on his Hell Can WaitEP and his sophomore album Big Fish Theory, telling the crowd, “You know, they told me, ‘You can’t make this, you gotta do straight hip-hop, it’s gonna translate better with your audience.’ Whatever the f—k that means.”