Childish Gambino

Up next on the PL►YList is a well-known artist who recently visited campus.  You may be familiar with him from his work in television, comedy, or music, and you may know him as Troy from Community, Jason Rodgers of the Mystery Team, Childish Gambino, or just as Donald Glover, the actor, comedian, and rapper.

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Donald Glover first gained recognition from his work with the Internet sketch group, Derrick Comedy, which has produced viral skits like Keyboard Kid or Girls Are Not To Be Trusted featuring Donald as Kevin.  The group has also parodied various aspects of the music industry, like with Emo Song (which pokes fun at Simple Plan’s Welcome to My Life and similar songs), Boy Band (which features Donald and the rest of Derrick Comedy as a boy band), and B-Boy Stance, parodying old school hip-hop culture.

Childish Gambino is Donald’s stage name, which he got from a Wu-Tang Name Generator.  He produced a few mixtapes and albums before his verse on Jamie xx Remix of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep really kicked off recognition of his music career, as he acknowledged in his song Freaks and Geeks.

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His song, Heartbeat, from his Camp album has well over 10 million views on YouTube, and according to an interview with MTV, he designed the music video specifically to fit the track’s mood, “I do not really have a set of things in mind. I thought the best way to convey the feeling that’s in the song was to be confused ourselves… I wouldn’t say it’s so much a video as much as it is just a mood.”

The first single from Camp, Bonfire, really exemplifies Childish Gambino’s witty, one-liner style with lyrics like, “Okay, it’s Childish Gambino, homegirl drop it like the NASDAQ,” or, “Butcher and I know it, man, kill beef, go ham.”

Bonfire was also one of the songs he performed for his homecoming show at Penn State, and the video features me working barricades without a clue as to what to do, but the show was great, despite the fact that the lights were not working in Rec Hall that night.

Childish Gambino also performed a bit of unreleased material (Yaphet Kotto) from his upcoming album, which is now out, and entitled, because the internet.

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because the internet features more songs, like 3005 and Sweatpants feat JANKINS,  that display Gambino’s gift for clever lines and is definitely worth checking out if you have yet to hear it.

4 thoughts on “Childish Gambino

  1. Elaine Demopolis

    An eccentric individual indeed. I find it hilarious that he used a random name generator to come up with Childish Gambino. I love their song Heartbeat, and find his look on the music video interesting and different. Art is a portrayal of mood, and his music video aimed to do just that. Did you go to the Penn State concert?

  2. Selina Roman-White

    I first found out about Childish Gambino while listening to one of my Pandora stations, and I began to really appreciate his witty lines. I hate it when people group all rappers into one category and say their music is a bunch of trash with no skill, because if you actually listen to some of their lyrics they’re mind-blowing, witty awesomeness that makes me appreciate rap so much. I really wish I could’ve went to the homecoming performance. What’s your favorite Childish Gambino song? I think mine might actually be heartbeat, it just has such a good beat. Do you know of any rappers that have similar styles to Gambino? I’d love to hear some more music from artists like him.

  3. Rohan Basu

    Joe, I have known about Childish since day one and he is the man. I’ve seen him live twice now, and at one of his shows he did standup comedy in between songs. He is crazy good live. Really, Donald Glover is the modern-day renaissance man. He was a writer for the critically-acclaimed 30 Rock, a comedian, an actor, and a rapper. What can’t the guy do? I actually talked to a friend of mine (who goes to Temple) who met Donald. The kid said that Donald doesn’t rap for money or fame. He does it just because he wants to. In fact, he told my friend not to pay for “Because the Internet,” and instead just rip it off the internet. I mean, the guy made his own movie, too: no big deal. Other people recognize his genius, too. He was on Forbes 30 Under 30 a couple years ago: http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2011/30-under30-12/30-under-30-12_entertainment.html. Anyways, to the music. What did you think of his new album? I personally loved it. This is the first album in which he establishes his own style, with few other influences. I played it on loop for a long time. It was very ‘out there,’ but his message was clear. I still think his best pure rap is from his EP and Culdesac, but all of his mixtapes are solid. Actually, it’s crazy to say it, but Camp might have been his worst work, and it was still good. What do you think his best work is, musically and otherwise? I’m curious to hear what others think of him, because he just started blowing up a couple years ago, even though he’s been grinding for a long time.

  4. Nettie Baugher

    I saw that Childish Gambino was coming to Penn State, but I didn’t get to go see their concert! I only know a few of his songs, but they’re pretty good! It is really cool that he is an actor, comedian, and actor. I didn’t know that! I will definitely have to check out both his comedy sketches and some more of his music.

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