For all fans of Derrick Comedy or the hit NBC show Community, if you haven't yet heard of Childish Gambino, you're definitely streets behind.
Donald Glover is the multi-talented actor, writer, comedian, and musician behind this stage name. His recently leaked album, Camp, set to be released November 15th, is promising to be as epic as his last EP, ironically/lazily titled EP. Indeed, his lyrics in Camp are as hilariously witty as before, and his experimentation with beats to complement his rap is, once again, very successful. Though Childish Gambino's style is reminiscent of many other rappers before him -- Kanye's cheekiness and creativity (Outside sounds very much like Kanye's Dark Fantasy), Drake's flow, Eminem's vocabulary, etc. -- he is unique and distinctive enough to be in a class of his own.
Though I am definitely loving this new release, it would be nice to see some growth in his work: he can't and shouldn't stick to his current tried and true formula, namely the barrage of punny cultural references and sexual innuendos with a few quality lines, for the rest of his career. So far, his subject matter has not changed much from album to album but I do hope he finds new topics to cover in his future releases.
In any case, do check it out for yourselves: the entire album is available for listen on NPR.
Some of my favorites so far are:
Bonfire
LOVE the beat in this one; also the twist ending (if it can be qualified as such):
Heartbeat
I particularly like how he actually sings in this one as opposed to just rapping:
Kids (Keep Up)
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