The confidence of Kanye West, the best of Lil’ Wayne and the Troy half of “Troy and Abed in the Morning” straight from Community. Donald Glover, or his rap alter ego, Childish Gambino, is the real deal. He’s simply the best thing in a genre that offers little in the way of innovation. His new album Camp is his first release on an actual label; previously all of his other albums were released on his blogspot and tumblr websites. Camp could be extremely bad. He could easily fail at doing this rap thing, but Glover, an NYU grad who just happens to be an Emmy award winner, has a way with words. For example, a lyric from “All The Shine” goes: “I keep it wrapped until I meet the right one / ‘Cause I ain’t Mumford I ain’t tryin’ to have sons / All I want was some Moore like Ashton / I ain’t the coolest but I know I got passion.” The album is full of extremely offbeat one-liners that could only come from someone who once wrote for The Daily Show and 30 Rock and who stars on NBC’s Community (easily one of the best comedies on television right now). Glover, excuse me, Gambino, raps about the thing he knows best: his life. Again, Camp could be horrible. I mean, who is this guy who raps about his “great” celebrity life? For someone who has a lot going for him, he’s a normal, average human being and he admits it. He has the same fears that anyone has; he talks about his issues growing up as the only black student in an all white school, his issues with women, insecurities about his looks, his sexual conquests and his problems with being taken seriously as an artist. He is not related to Danny Glover of Lethal Weapon fame; he’s that guy from the “Bro Rape” video which was made by his comedy group Derrick Comedy, and was once rumored to be the next Spiderman in the new remake (the part went to Andrew Garfield of The Social Network fame).
You can spend a lot of time trying to guess who he sounds like. I’ve seen mentions of Lil’ Wayne, Nas, Kanye, Jay-Z, and Mos Def. Ultimately, though, Gambino is his own thing, although he clearly takes the best of any one of those artists and makes it his own. Rap isn’t the only genre he listens to, though; on his tumblr, he’s quick to post links, videos, or shout-outs to other artists he really likes, like Beach House, Broken Social Scene, Tyler, The Creator and more. On his past albums, he’s sampled Adele (the track “Do Ya Like” off his older mixtape Culdesac), Sleigh Bells (on his track “New Prince” on I Am Just a Rapper) and other tracks. He’s all over the place musically, and it shows. More importantly, it’s not a bad thing. If you listen to “Do Ya Like,” you’ll find that he can actually sing like Drake, but, you know, actually talented. Shockingly, Camp doesn’t use many samples, if any, but he’s spent more time on the album; crafting 13 tracks that runs about 56 minutes, a running time which seems unheard of these days. I could compare the album to Kanye West’s The College Dropout or Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP, and essentially, I wouldn’t be far off, but Gambino is his own man, this is his album, and it’s his time to shine. Honestly, buy this album, support a great up and coming artist, check it out for the clever lyrics, but stay for the experience. As it says on childishgambinolyrics.tumblr.com; “Trust in Gambino. He has never failed us.”