At the Neptune — rapper Vince Staples, part of new wave

Rapper Vince Staples — playing the Neptune Theatre on Wednesday (March 2) — understands that a great deal of life is contradiction.

That idea is succinctly summed up in his song “Lift Me Up,” the second track from his 2015 double-album release, “Summertime ’06,” in which he raps, “I need to fight the power, but I need that new Ferrari.”

“I feel like it’s something everyone goes through in life,” says Staples in a phone interview earlier this week. “You always have this conflict, this battle with morals. Everyone has guilty pleasures and they inevitably clash.”