Despite the album’s title, both Summertime ’06 and Vince Staples come off as chilly and unforgiving as the coldest winter. For his debut LP, Staples assembles 20 tracks in which he cloaks tales of street strife and hard living within sparsely digital production and his distinctly dispassionate flow. Even if you’d never confuse his style with that of Snoop Dogg or Ice Cube’s, with songs like his neighborhood anthem “Norf Norf” or the minimalist, menacing “Dopeman,” Staples lays down his marker to join the pantheon of L.A. greats.

– Oliver Wang