Now we can finally hear the result. Monday night (Oct. 6), Staples shared the EP, making it available on iTunes and Spotify. He's already released two standout tracks from the project: the keening, urgent "Blue Suede" and the rumbling, angry murk of "Hands Up."

The rest of the tracks here display a wide-ranging ear for production: the metallic clank of "Fire," and the languid, jazzy horn-driven bounce of "65 Hunnid" are particularly diverse. And then there's "Limo", an oozing collaboration with G.O.O.D. Music's Teyana Taylor, in which the vocalist and rapper explore the texture of a fractured relationship over precise, layered R&B melodies.

We've never heard anything like this from Staples. "It's a process," he explained. "I now have more access to certain things."