Childish Gambino- Camp
“I’m the realest motherfucker in the game like Tron, nigga.”
Lines from Childish Gambino’s “You See Me,” a single from his breakout album, a statement couldn’t be more true.
You may recognize Childish Gambino by Donald Glover, actor on comedies such as Community, 30 Rock, YouTube comedy group Derrick Comedy. You might not recognize that he has been rapping for longer than his comedy career, and he is actually quite good. This might help to explain why he is such a talented comedy writer, since to be a rapper you have to be witty and quick on your feet, all of which Childish Gambino is incredible at.
Camp is an effort all on his own, paid for by himself, produced by himself and friend/Community composer Ludwig Goransson, and fueled by passion for quality music and quality hip-hop. The instrumentation is very real, you won’t find any Casio samples here, everything is very well put together. Camp is geared toward an audience that wants to hear something new, hip-hop that is real, and yet not centered around a world of street life. “White kids get to wear whatever hat they want, when it comes to black kids its one size fits all.”
From the song Fire Fly:
It’s hard to make HOV the footsteps you followin’
Especially when your niggas look like Carlton
The pretty girls usin’ skin so soft
Only be likin’ black dudes with their hats broke off
Nigga you act too soft
Fuck you! I’m from the projects
My mom was just workin’ to give me options
No live shows, cause I can’t find sponsors
For the only black kid at a Sufjan concert
Yeah so, whatcha gonna do man?
You won’t speak to the hood, man
If I was given one chance I think I could, man
These black kids want somethin’ new, I swear it
Somethin’ they wanna say but couldn’t cause they embarrassed
All I do is make the stuff I would’ve liked
Reference things I wanna watch, reference girls I wanna bite
Now I’m firefly like a burning kite
And yousa fake fuck like a fleshlight
The album has many different themes and at the core of the album you find a Jekyll and Hide complex with Childish Gambino. One part is a look at his childhood, how he grew up in a culture that he wasn’t accepted as a black kid, or a white kid. The other part is a look at how he had grown from that as a better person, but then ruins it by objectifying women that he wants to have sex with. There are a lot of critics that compare Childish to Drake, (due to the fact that they both rap, sing, and act) however I would say that isn’t a fair to Childish Gambino. Don’t get me wrong, Drake is great; Childish Gambino is in a completely different league. Donald is such an amazing writer that with Camp, he has toped his EP, 13 honest and true Hip-hop tracks, with an astounding diversity in topics. I would be more apt to compare him to Kanye West, since their flow and lyrical content seems to be similar, “You See Me” in particular seems like Donald is trying to be like Kanye, even directly biting some lines from “Watch the Throne.”
Being a well-spoken comedian, it’s only natural that Donald would be a pop-culture referencing machine. From the opening track, “Outside”, he immediately invites you back in time to when he used to sit on the couch and play with his Land Before Time toys from Pizza Hut. The album is littered with a crazy amount of references (Invader Zim, Toejam & Earl, McDonalds napkins, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Fleshlights, Super Smash Brothers, Casey Anthony, Rugrats, Full House, John Mayer’s penis hole). The album ends on a note that perfectly wraps everything up, and takes you into a journal entry after a ride home from “Camp.”
Hard to write this review because I was constantly bombarded by lyrics that the album has to be listened to many times before you hear all the jokes and quips. Lyrically, its dense and very rewarding to the listener.
If you liked this, you may or may not like the following:
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Album Review: Childish Gambino EP
Artist of the Week: Samantha Crain
Album Review: Kid Cudi
Album Review: Jay-z and Kanye West-Watch the Throne
You know as a devout Kanye fan, I had to comment! I heard about his comparisons to Kanye so I had a listen and I only heard about 20 seconds of a clip of a song (I can’t remember which one). I liked the beat and how it had soul/dubstep, I thought that was interesting but I wasn’t a huge fan of his flow and I kind of got tired of it quick. I think my reasoning was that I already have one Kanye in my life, I don’t need another! But I am very interested and like I said, I dug the beat and I like Glover so I’d like to give his whole album a listen instead of listening to it while having an ADHD bout.
Thanks for the review!
Definitely give the entire album a listen, its a very fun record. I bet you listened to “Heartbeat” (since that matches the description) which isn’t my favorite. Let me know what you think when you hear the whole thing, its not for everyone, my friend that enjoys Kanye didn’t really feel it either.