Watch Vince Staples’ Tiny Desk Concert [Video]

Vince Staples brings Cry Baby to NPR’s Tiny Desk for a five-song performance backed by a four-piece live band.

Five years after recording a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert from Long Beach, Vince Staples has finally made it behind NPR Music’s actual desk.

The five-song performance is built primarily around Cry Baby, with guitarists Jennifer Haack and Mikaiah Lei, bassist Chloe Haack and drummer Myles Martin pushing the album’s raw post-punk textures to the front. Staples follows the record’s opening sequence with “Blackberry Marmalade,” “Go! Go! Gorilla” and “White Flag,” then reaches back to Dark Times for “Shame on the Devil” before closing with “Only in America.”

Following “Go! Go! Gorilla,” Staples tests the room’s knowledge of George Jackson and Bobby Hutton before invoking other slain Black figures, including Larry Kimmons. Later, he recalls predicting that the altered American flag in the “White Flag” video would provoke more outrage than the violence depicted in “Blackberry Marmalade,” extending the political tension of Cry Baby beyond the songs themselves.

Watch the full 23-minute performance below.