Donald Glover: Rapper. Producer. Actor. Comedian. Writer. As you can see, it would be quite hard to find many other artists this diversely talented with that many titles. Especially among the new school of artists. Much like Drake, Childish Gambino started out as an actor. He appeared on NBC's Community. He also was a writer for NBC's comedy series 30 Rock. This was from 2006 to 2010. Though he got plenty of awards and recognition for his television work, it wasn't until he emerged as a MC in 2011 when the recognition grew larger. It's also when I took first notice as well. That year he dropped his debut album Camp which was easily one of my favorite albums of 2011. Top five even. It was just masterfully done with brilliant concepts, brilliant production using live instrumentation and tons of over-your-head lyrics with clever and witty word play. It's that trait that drew me into becoming a fan of Gambino. With, in my opinion, a damn near classic debut, you can clearly understand the huge anticipation for this. His sophomore album Because The Internet (which I might add is one of the best album titles of the year). Last year Gambino dropped a mixtape called Royalty in which he totally switched up everthing to a heavy mainstream sound. This didn't please me at all. Granted it was only a mixtape and I probably shouldn't care too much. I was just a little worried that he listened to what the critics said and decided to switch up and change everything. I was praying that it wouldn't carry on to this album. Thankfully it didn't. This was a impressive sophomore album from Childish Gambino. However I have to admit, this was probably the most difficult album of the year to understand. It literally took me close to ten listens to finally grasp everything that's going on. In a way it's all over the place as far as sound, concept, genre and much more. As far as sound you get everything from rap, R&B, pop, techno and psychedelic ("trippy") sounds. That was easy to point out but the hard part was making out the concept. As you can see by the album's title, the album is centered around things today that the internet gets blamed for. Or the evils that come as a result of today's internet age. Lines hear and there referring to internet related things. Gambino throughout the album gives you his personal story of how it affects him. He goes through a big time emotional roller coaster through the album. Everything from joy and happiness, anger, sadness, love, depression and even fear. Needless to say, this album will confuse many. It's a lot to take in I know. This is the type of album you gotta listen to for it's concept and not just for the sound. With all this said, here is my highlights of the album. The album started out pretty damn good. The first track "Crawl" was really dope. I love the female vocals and samples on the hook The production was excellent here too. "Sweatpants" may be my favorite of the album. I thought Gambino spit the best on this track ("I got beach houses on both coasts/Ph balance"). This also was my favorite beat on the album. It's cool enough for underground but still cool enough for mainstream. Though I thought he could have done a little better with the hook not making it so sing-a-long-ish, I still love this track. Now the internet theme starts to come into play. "Worldstar" pretty much speaks for itself. Though I thought he could have done a little better with the hook not making it so sing-a-long-ish, I still love this track. Now the internet theme starts to come into play. "Worldstar" pretty much speaks for itself. The one internet source for all things coonery. The song was pretty much jokingly made about the kick everyone gets out of fights and all other kinds of crazy videos on Worldstarhiphop.com. Even including excerpts from videos and people yelling "world star". Cool song. "Shadows" to me sounds like Gambino spitting game to a girl via the internet. It's a cool song but I think he should have went further with the concept. "3005" had a really dope R&B hook. This was also one of a few songs on here where he sounded very similar to Kendrick Lamar flow wise. Here it sounds like he's spitting game again but being extra thirsty this time. As we commonly see on Facebook and Twitter and such. I don't know if it's the same chick from the other song or not but nonetheless I like the song. "No Exit" deep warped sounding beat that kinda sounds like something from Kanye West's Yeezus album. It sounds like here he's trying to get away from someone or some drama that went down at a party that happened on the previous track. I mentioned how he sounded like Kendrick Lamar on a few songs and this one reminded me of Kendrick's song "The Art Of Peer Pressure" from his Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City album. I like the song a lot. The final track "Life: The Biggest Troll". plays into the internet theme as well. The internet of course is full of trolls who are irritating and here Gambino breaks down how life is the same way. Makes you think a lot and agree with a lot of what's being said. "Earth: The Oldest Computer (The Last Night)" had this very cool crossover R&B/pop hook that I actually liked. It pulled me into liking the song more than what I did. He compares the world to one giant computer and how it will not last if constantly abused or mistreated. Just like what constant internet abuse can do to your computer or laptop. Now my lowlights (nothing major). "The Worst Guys", while it wasn't a bad song, it was kind of a disappointment. After just being introduced to Chance The Rapper earlier this year I was hoping to hear him spit along with Gambino but all he did was a repetitive hook that was just....ehh. It's catchy but could have been much better than that. "Telegraph Ave." I want to like. I really do. But when I hear it takes me back to Drake's Take Care album. An album I didn't like to well. This sounded like Gambino stole a lost Take Care track and made it his own. But because Gambino's singing is much more tolerable than Drake's this song might grow on me. "Fligh Of The Navigator" was a bit too trippy sounding. I know he was experimenting on this album with the psychedelic sound and he did good but this song had me so lost that I gave up trying to figure it out. As far as how it ties in with the story/concept. Well overall this album was very good. I was very impressed with the albums concept, the story and the experimentation with the sound. I give it a final grade of a B+. In today's world, damn near everything is connected in some sort of way to the internet. Music, videos, shopping, meeting new friends, dating and so on can all be done through the internet. Sometimes however it takes a negative toll on you if there's too much of it. That's what Childish Gambino shows you on this album. The ups and downs. I'm glad he acknowledges what the internet is really capable of while others ignore it. I say to you all this: Use the internet. Don't let it use you. End.
Final Grade: B+
CREDITS
Executive Producers
Donald Glover
Fam Udeorji
Lead Artist
Donald Glover
Production
Donald Glover
Ludwig Goransson
Christian Rich
Stefan Ponce
Collaboration
Alessia Brigante
Michael Tyler
Chancellor Bennett
Jason Martin
Lloyd Polite
Jhene Chilombo
Miguel Pimetel
Lakisha Robinson
Azealia Banks
Label
Glassnote/Island Records
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