![]() ![]() But Childish Gambino's earliest mixtapes, from the late 2000s, are the reflections of a cultural sponge who simply desired to create on his own terms. Glover's first recordings-which he once said sounded like a “decrepit” version of Drake-predate the name change and never formally saw the light of day. While not exactly the kind of backstory many rappers and singers would readily admit to, it's a fitting place to start in order to understand his idiosyncratic approach to music, which manages to strike a delicate balance between artful and whimsical. Glover was born in 1983, at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, but Childish Gambino came into existence, famously, with the aid of an online Wu-Tang Clan name generator, sometime around 2008, when he decided to use the moniker so that fans of his comedy wouldn’t think his music was just a bit. Shirking definition is key to his allure, a superpower of sorts that keeps onlookers entertained, intrigued, and altogether baffled in turns. Then there's Childish Gambino, the Grammy-winning multi-hyphenate musician and producer who's not as easy to describe-but that's also kind of the point. On the one hand, there's Donald Glover: the writer, actor, comedian, and director extraordinaire best known for his work on the sitcom Community and his original series (and homage to his hometown) Atlanta. The result is an experiment in time travel: Through sounds of the past, he captures the tensions of the present. Coming from an artist known for taut wordplay and manically constructed similes, the broad strokes of Awaken are a shift: You’ll think eventually, but mood comes first.Īnd in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests that followed the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and so many more, Glover’s choice to echo a period in Black music when artists took on an explicitly revolutionary cast is a canny complement to albums like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and Solange Knowles’ A Seat at the Table, both of which explored Black identity with new urgency. It makes for a tonal fluidity that also marks his work on the television show Atlanta, which he created. Like a funhouse mirror, he stretches his influences into weird shapes: The freak-outs are exaggerated to the point of comedy (“Me and Your Mama”) and the ballads romantic to the point of creepy (“Terrified”). Glover said he’d started with childhood memories of his parents playing Funkadelic and The Isley Brothers on the stereo: specific sounds and songs, but more importantly, a general feeling-one that Glover wasn’t quite old enough to grasp. Despite serving as the latter half of a two-part project offered as a gift to fans, Gambino couldn’t help but spice it up with a few of his signature gifts.On the face of it, Donald Glover’s “Awaken, My Love!” is a museum-quality rip of early-’70s funk and soul: the faded vocals, the fuzzed-out guitars, the collective sense of chaos and exuberance. 3005 (Beach Picnic Version)”, which closes Kauai. It was confirmed by Gambino shortly after-that the verse syncs up with the instrumental portion of “V. Shortly after its release, fans discovered a hidden a cappella verse on one of Glover's websites. ![]() Even proceeds for the album paid tribute to Kauai, with sales benefiting a nonprofit that helped maintain and preserve the island.ĭespite the low-key approach, Gambino still brought a number of Easter eggs and surprise nuggets to fans, which they had begun to expect since his studio debut, Camp, a few years prior. With features from Jaden Smith, Christian Rich and more, Gambino invites a number of collaborators to add to the calming, relaxed style of the record. The artist croons about the shocking end of a relationship, singing, “And now that it’s over, I’ll never be sober/I couldn't believe, but now I’m so high.” On “Retro (Rough)”, Gambino cues up 808 drums and a shuffling groove to give the song its easygoing, laidback feel. Opener “Sober” glows with keyboard chords, the artist’s stirring falsetto, funk-inspired drums and naked honesty. Kauai offers up smooth soul and R&B music indebted to the impossibly good vibes of island life. On the EP, Gambino dreams of being an influential figure in Atlanta, awakening from this dream and finding himself on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. On the other hand, Kauai was a reflection of how that music inspired him. Childish Gambino’s Kauai EP was part of a multi-day release effort that began on October 2, 2014, when he dropped its mixtape predecessor, STN MTN, an homage to the Atlanta rap he grew up loving, which is why he debuted it on a-by that time-outdated music-hosting service. ![]()
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