Childish Gambino (2019)

One Liner: Inconsistently good rapper and R&B crooner

Wikipedia Genre:  Hip hop, funk, R&B, soul, psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 1

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: Lucky for me, I just wrote this post last year for his cancelled 2018 performance, and dude hasn't released any good music since then, so I can pretty much just cut and paste!  Yay me!

Donald Glover is a very interesting dude.  If you don't know anything about him, then a short primer would tell you that he was first a sitcom writer (30 Rock), then an actor (Community and Atlanta), and in the midst of that, a rapper and then R&B singer.  He won some Emmys and Golden Globes for his work on Atlanta.  Since then, he's been the new Lando Calrissian (in Solo: A Star Wars Story) and acted in roles in Spiderman: Homecoming and The Martian.  He's about to be the voice of Simba in the new Lion King movie.  In other words, the dude has become a force in the pop culture/entertainment world.

But we are here to talk about just one small portion of that.  The music.  And that aspect of his career is honestly kind of confusing.  Is he a hardcore rapper, like on his debut album, 2011's Camp?  Is he a straight up R&B crooner, like on his 2016 album Awaken, My Love?  Is he an extremely thought-provoking firestarter, as with the 2018 single/video "This is America?"  I have no damn clue.  But it leaves me with the distinct understanding that he doesn't like to sit still with one style for too long, leading him to leave some great stuff behind him in favor of new horizons.

First things first, we have to talk about "This is America."  In May 2018, Gambino was on Saturday Night Live (while I was on vacation in Italy), and my cell phone immediately blew up with friends wanting to know if I had seen this new video from his new single.  If you haven't seen it, then you really need to do it right now.

575 million views of that video (!!!).  Another 329.2 million streams on Spotify (and likely loads more on Apple and Tidal and wherever).  So this was a huge hit - and to me, that was 100% because of that amazing video.  The Internet immediately filled up with 10,000 word think pieces and reaction videos about all of the different bits of symbolism in that video - the dance styles, the musical references, the clothing, the hairstyles, the violence, the hidden meanings in them all.  And the video, combined with the song, is one of the best I've ever seen - gives me goosebumps every time.  Especially the ending.  Damn.

That being said, the song, by itself?  Pretty lame.  The first time I heard it on the radio, I was actually shocked.  Without the visual, the depth and heft of the song just evaporates and you're left with platitudes over a generic beat.  Someone will likely take issue with that statement, but the lyrics are just generic stuff - "don't catch you slippin'" and "look what I'm whippin'" and rhyming "hunnid bands" with "contraband."  No better than the current crop of fungible soundcloud rappers.

Prior to that single, which still has yet to be added to a new album, Gambino had released three albums.  2011's Camp is more of a true rap album.  As I recall from his prior interviews, he wanted this Childish Gambino alter-ego to be a true hardcore rap star-type avatar that he could put on when not doing acting or comedy.  Also funny, that he got his name during college, using the Wu Tang name generator online.  Mine is Tough Tiger Fist, please do not steal it, gonna be huge some day.  "Bonfire" is the top track from that album with 168.8 million streams.

Holy shit.  That video is great too.  The tune flows like a Lil Wayne track, and the beat sounds like something Kanye would have made in his good days.  Much harder track, with some gangsta couplets (and some regrettable ones, like the one using "retarded").  Pretty good album though.

Then his next album was when he started a detour - 2013's Because the Internet.  This one has a little more crooning, fewer true rap banger songs.  The hit from this one is "3005," with 332.2 million streams.

Kind of combines the rap and R&B thing, in a very modern way, over those spongy space bounce tunes and a deep bass thrum.  Catchy tune.  The album as a whole is very up and down.

Then, 2016's Awaken, My Love! blew the roof off of his popularity, and for a while you couldn't go to any radio station without hearing "Redbone."  628.2 million streams (by far his most streamed):

Which is a TOTAL juke move from his prior music.  Prince and Andre 3000 with Funkadelic.  The thing about this one is how derivative it is of like 20 other tunes.  The main interpolation for the tune is from Bootsy Collins' tune "I'd Rather Be With You," (which rings a bell to rap fans because NWA used it for "I'd Rather F*ck You").  The song is silky smooth, groovy as hell, and his falsetto is quite nice.  He also tapped into a cultural movement by including the admonition to "stay woke" in his chorus, so that everyone from a Black Lives Matter organizer to the soccer mom taking her kids to get frozen yogurt could sing those lyrics and groove along.  I very much enjoy this song.  And in fact, if you are into Funkadelic and groove based tunes like this, then the whole album is damn good.  Very little traditional rap on here, more soul and R&B and funk.  Tracks like "California" and "Riot" are well done (and weird as hell).


So, since that 2016 album, no new album.  He released two tracks that I find so awful that it is offensive, 2018's "Summertime Magic" and "Feels Like Summer," each of which comprise a soulless Pharrell-like attempt to craft a super-generic song of the summer.  Horrible lyrics.  Garbage beat.  Just zero that is redeemable in any way.  Like Adam Levine and Bruno Mars were bet $20 that they couldn't come up with a summer song in under 20 seconds.  Here is "Summertime Magic."

Bruno: OK, so Adam, can we use those metal barrel drum things, like in Jamaica or whatever?  
Adam: Totally, good idea, I'm going to finish up the lyrics by pouring out this cup full of generic words about love and summer.  Perfect.  Can you come up with a hook that hopefully just says dolovemedolovemedolovemedo?
Bruno: On it.  How did the lyrics come out?
Adam: Awesome, just rhyming baby girl with my whole world 19 times, then gonna put valentine with summertime a few more times, then we'll rhyme sun with fun, and I think we're done.
<high five each other>  Very bad song.  I'm sorry you just had to experience it again.  Nothing else new from the guy, so I guess we are just going to get the same recycled show that he planned to play for us last year, before he ditched us in favor of his couch.

And here's the deal - he's up against the Cure on Saturday night, so FOH.  I'll be over there wailing along to "A Forest" while this dude is rhyming "I love you" with "no one else above you."