Wedin...................A Defense of Childish Gambino

Gambino by Ben Wedin

Quick disclaimer: I’m a Childish Gambino fan. I’ve been on the Gambino train since 2008, when his comedy group Derrick Comedy used the song “Get Like Me” in their trailer for the movie Mystery Team (which is worth watching, if only to see younger versions of Aubrey Plaza and Donald Glover). I was a fan of the nerdy raps in the style of a nasally Lil’ Wayne, and was always excited to hear the next project. He’s a popular fgure for sure, especially on college campuses, but he also gets a lot of hate.

Ian Cohen gave Camp a 1.6 on Pitchfork back in 2011. He makes some valid arguments, but in the process, validated a lot of people’s choice to write off Donald Glover as a struggle actor-turned-rapper without ever listening to the music. Luckily, I didn’t throw away my love of his nerdy music in order to calibrate my tastes to Pitchfork. Since then, Gambino has only become more substantive and versatile.

So why is Gambino such a target? Part of it is his method to success: much of his fanbase was gained through his popularity on Community, which may feel like a cheap come-up. But besides that, many of the arguments break down when you start listening to what he’s been up to lately. Gambino admits that there’s no way he “can make something worse” than Camp, an album crowded with emphatic punchlines. But the concept is hardly foreign to college-ready rap music, and is even lauded when some of the most beloved artists like Lil Wayne or Kanye West do it. “No sports bra, let’s keep it bouncin’” is a dope Kanye line or at least a quotable, while “Ain’t fucking with you niggas like apartheid” is seen as typical Gambino pun-hoop-jumping.

Would you like Childish Gambino if he weren’t an “educated and nerdy black hipster”?

But Because the Internet, besides just being one of the most conceptual rap albums of 2013, is Gambino’s best work. In the context of the accompanying audio-visual screenplay, the vapid swagger of “Sweatpants” or “Crawl” are wonderfully ironic, while the true internal thoughts of Gambino’s character “The Boy” ramble on like a 21st century Prufrock, desensitized from a life on the Internet. The whole story is worth a read, but it’s much more than describing how dope he is. When discussing relationships, he is self-eviscerating: “Love is Russian Roulette / I had the safety on.” When the character Donald Glover is speaking, he is paranoid, and discusses a future of someone walking into a store with a 3-D printed gun.

Would you like Childish Gambino if he weren’t an educated and nerdy black hipster? Gambino does not have the language of gang life to use, so when rapping with the internet-laden culture he’s familiar with, he is seen as illegitimate or pandering. Without affrmation from a vet like Jay-Z or Lil Wayne, Gambino is seen as a less cool version of Drake or Kanye: simultaneously expressing his dopeness while peddling his emotional insecurities. Rap music, as it’s predominantly consumed, is either Macklemorazalean crossover, or draws from the combination of sex, drugs, and violence from gangster rap. Even when the weirder Odd Future(“toowhitefortheblackkids”)comein,thevulgarityand unruly nature is not the persona of Donald Glover.He seems like a timid and wholesome dude, so putting him on a playlist next to someone like ScHoolboy Q (who is on Gambino’s mixtape ROYALTY, by the way) can be too much for some.

Gambino is more than just a comedian/actor, and is more than just a rapper now, too. His recent double EP STN MTN/Kauai is another conceptual endeavor, where one half is a fctionalized Gambino on an (admittedly shoddy) Gangsta Grillz mixtape, while the second half includes R&B tracks and spoken word from Jaden Smith. It’s pretty decent stuff for an EP less than a year after BTI, a nice morsel to keep you preoccupied before the next album for Gambino fans.

Look: I’m not calling Gambino the greatest of all time. Or even of current time. Some of his lyrics when he’s talking about sex are not only overly crude in a Tyler. the Creator kind of way, but are the source for most of the frustration of overly elaborate pun-work. “H2O plus my D, that’s my hood / I’m living in it” is rough any way you slice it. But even these have been getting better, as the most recent double EP is more or less gone of the blatant misogyny. And respect the fow. “Man I wish I could go back and tell that kid it’s make-believe / make ‘em believe in themselves, people who needed my help / feelings I felt, keeling myself / No one’s ever been this lost”. Childish Gambino is real, so give him a Chance (the Rapper). Listen to Because the Internet, front-to-back, and actively. The music speaks for itself. And if you want more speaking, check out the screenplay. 27