“With me being an artist that has a business mind, it’s really like two different personalities there, they clash at times,” says Prince Ace. “I always have to find the balance. For New Vice City, I feel like I found a really good balance of everything that was in the artistic lane and I then introduce the business mindset as well. For each track, after the song was recorded, the artist in me said, ‘Oh, this is done.’ I handed it over to the business side of myself and was like 'figure out how to work with this, what to do with it.' Just making sure I maintained that balance.
“I think one of the worst things you can do as an artist is go into the studio or a creative space thinking about money. It really taints the creative space. But at the same time, being a lovey-dovey artist and walking into a business meeting with that mindset is just fucked up. It’s important to have both mindsets.”
Prince Ace managed to maintain that balance in New Vice City, which oscillates between male and female energy, discussing partying, love, and, of course, Dallas.
“People have been asking about the name a lot,” says Ace. “It came from a running joke; we were talking about the music scene in Dallas is like Grand Theft Auto sometimes. You have these little missions you go on; you don’t necessarily know how important they are to the main story. You run into people who may be able to help you.
“Couple that with the idea that Dallas is a place that’s full of so many things that maybe a normal-minded person would like, so much beauty. There’s so much money here yet there’s so much poverty. There’s crimes, there’s drugs, there’s gangs and murder. Then at the same time, there’s a beautiful art scene, money, museums. It dwelled into a Vice City idea of like, I wasn’t there, but how we figure Miami must have been in the ‘80s. It was awesome, pretty-ass, neon colors. Everybody goes there to have fun at the bars and drink, but at the same time it was still the hub of cocaine in America.”
When looking at the album tracks, Prince Ace struggles to find a favorite, as the project itself is divided into three distinct acts.
“That’s how I did the pacing,” he says. “During the creative process, I wasn’t thinking like that, I was just making whatever I was making. Once I’m through that, now I can sit there and look at it, what songs complement the others, what songs should be heard. The first act, for lack of a better phrase, is some ‘Dallas shit.’ Shouting out my city, shouting out my bros. The type of music you can definitely hear in the clubs. Fun songs talking about street shit.”
The album opens with tracks reminiscent of early 2000s hip-hop, like Ace’s favorite track on Act One, “Anthem,” which was inspired by another Dallas rapper.
“It’s a Dallas anthem,” says Ace. “You know the song ‘Southside Da Realist’ by Big Tuck? That’s ‘Anthem.’”
The second act in New Vice City shuffles the tone, leaning to R&B, slow jam sounds and deeper topics.
“The second Act in a nutshell is about the juggling act of balancing personal ambition while trying to maintain a romantic relationship,” says Ace. “Most is from a male point of view, but I definitely called to a lot of women while I was in the creative process, the saying, ‘Behind every great man is a great woman.’ Having that mindset, what’s it like to be dating someone in the NFL or in my situation, an artist?
"... Dallas is a place that’s full of so many things that maybe a normal-minded person would like, so much beauty. There’s so much money here yet there’s so much poverty." – Prince Ace
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“Act Two really, like, boils into that what it’s like to have someone next to you who loves you and wants you to succeed, because art in particular causes you to pour so much into something that isn’t your relationship. I realized while I was talking to people that a lot of times women actually do legitimately feel like their partner is almost cheating on them. There’s this other thing here that consumes your focus, so much of your love, so much attention.”
That balancing act is a common topic for the artist. He balanced deep emotions and loss in his first album, Se7en. While in the past, Prince Ace found a distinction between being a writer/poet and a rapper/musician, now he’s balancing being an artist and a businessman.
“If you look at Act One, taking rose-colored glasses off in terms of target audience, Act One would be more male-centered, and then Act Two would be most likely women,” he says. “That’s where you find some of these more romantic ideas. Act Three is a combination of both. Now that I have the attention of men, I have the attention of women, I’m gonna talk to both of y’all.”
Released the day after his son’s second birthday, also the day before his dad’s birthday, the album finishes with what Prince Ace calls his “legacy part.”
“Act Three is all about legacy and everything was written with the mindset of what I want to be remembered by,” he says. “So the very first song in Act Three, it’s just me and my five-month-old son, at the time, talking.”
For Prince Ace, the final act of New Vice City is about setting the bar higher so that he can leave behind a legacy not only for his son, but for a wider group of people, ideally for years to come.
“Act Three is an artist in me needing the chance to use the platform that the business man in me has created to say some things that hopefully can actually outlive me,” he says. “It’s the legacy part of the album. It’s my chance to be, at best, be Beethoven, have something I create live on for hundreds of years.”
