Childish Gambino

I haven't heard any of this dude's music, but the supposedly "terrible" lyrics that everyone is posting on this thread and in I.Co's P4k review seem kind of clever/funny IMO.

you should hear the delivery, it's not the greatest

DJ Quik sells 15k and this guy sells 50k :(
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, December 2, 2011

qft

shocking developments today as a person who is not famous sells fewer albums than a person who is somewhat famous

oh cmon, you know exactly what the point is there and it's not that.

um, DJ Quik is pretty famous, arguably more famous with ppl who buy rap albums than Donald Glover

the real uncovered shocker here is "ppl who don't normally buy rap albums buy a terrible one"

I haven't heard any of this dude's music, but the supposedly "terrible" lyrics that everyone is posting on this thread and in I.Co's P4k review seem kind of clever/funny IMO.

I have only heard one of his songs via the radio and the beat was pretty annoying and I'm not gonna listen to anything else

but imo a lot of these lines are more clever than lines serious hiphop ppl quote as great

"ppl who don't normally buy rap albums buy a terrible one"

yeah this is the part I was befuddled by

I listened to this again and "Outside" is actually fine. Every other song has at least one "OH HELL NO *stops playback*" moment in it, though.

this albums looks like the musical equivalent of someone who says "LOL" in real life conversation

so... it looks like the musical equivalent of a teenager?

"ppl who don't normally buy rap albums buy a terrible one"

yeah this is the part I was befuddled by

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, December 2, 2011 9:51 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

argh why would this be befuddling? people aren't buying this because it's a rap album they're buying it because they like donald glover

i have friends who literally dont ask me about any rap besides Childish Gambino

they're white btw

argh why would this be befuddling? people aren't buying this because it's a rap album they're buying it because they like donald glover

I dunno in my world of tumblr whites its sad that there are more people into Donald Glover (just in general) than there are DJ Quik I mean wtf

the lyrics are terrible. seriously, that casey anthony one? come on

iatee & jaymc smh

Also guys, speaking of terrible lines - for those of you that didn't read that OTHER Childish Gambino thread, this is real lyric of his:

"I said I want a full house / they said, 'you got it dude!'"

This is not clever by any means.

And I do think it's important that we continue to point out the creepy misogyny that is buried beneath this "aww shucks I'm just a nerd into pop culture" demeanor.

I think it's kinda clever! Intertextuality, man.

Prior to hearing this album I'd generally been a big fan of Glover via his television work, so I really was inclined to want to love this stuff, but its terrible on a couple different levels. I'd be willing to overlook some of these clunkers, but I still couldn't get past the weird obsession with Asian girls, the rape jokes, and the awful production.

I think there are def indefensible clunkers but there are also lines that are more clever than lots of hiphop lyrics

and I'm sorry but this guy did not invent creepy misogyny in rap music

how hard would it be for me to find a dj quik lyric w/ creepy misogyny

every version of ilx gets the odd future thread it deserves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH2_HW7HVvE

iatee i think the main beef is that this is being sold in certain quarters as "different" and/or "better" than regular ol' hip-hop because it's being made by an overly self-aware nerd on a sitcom, despite the fact that plenty of rap has featured and does feature crappy rape jokes, crappy jokes in general, awful production, weird hyper-defensiveness over perceived status, dumb outfits, etc etc etc.

people I know post about childish gambino on facebook

people i know wrote ghostface lyrics in their ap chem textbooks

people i know quoted public enemy on the playground

i'm sure if we keep going someone will get to "people i know had rap sessions with gil scott heron on a stoop"

my first tape was the bartman

nancy cartwright flowed better than childish gambino

the wish anus prob does too tho

nancy cartwright didnt need grocery bags... WHOLE FOODS

this thread reminds about the diarrhea I got after eating a pork bun that I forgot to put in the fridge for a long time

strongo:

yeah I can dig that and like I said I have heard a total of 1 childish gambino songs and the beat/production was so awful that I can't imagine wanting to hear another. I do think that 'sitcom-watchers approve of this but not things exactly like this by people who aren't on a sitcom' is a fair critique.

but critics seem to be harping a little too much on the lyrics - which aren't flawless or anything but there's still some pretty clever things here and there and imo some of these lines might be quoted as great if they were by a goon-approved rapper. it's not that hard to find crass rhymes or dumb jokes in hiphop and I don't see a lot of hiphop reviews that cite every single dumb line on the album. people who hate this guy are holding him to another standard in the same way that people who like this guy are.

he's clearly a witty guy with a flair for wordplay, but that kind of thing requires different filters and different sensibilities for different contexts and artforms. being a 30 Rock writer doesn't qualify you to make a rap album anymore than being a dope rapper would qualify you to write a sitcom.

i think the question here is what is this guy bringing to the table? good lyricism? no, and btw, he's a comedian, so his jokes shouldn't be shit. is he bringing anything from a production or songwriting standpoint? no, obviously. is he bringing a new point of view? he wants you to believe that he is, but i think the pitchfork review outlines really well why, no, not even that is novel anymore, without begrudging black males that may identify with him.

and as far as holding his lyrics to a higher standard in terms of quoting them and stuff in reviews. his music trades totally on two things: his point of view and his punchlines. that's it. he's a joke writer at heart, not a musician. if you don't fuck with childish gambino's lyricism, then what is left? i could say that his punchlines hit at the same rate as 2 chainz or drake or lil wayne, but even if you don't dig those three guys lyrically, you can still often enjoy their music for other reasons, be it their collaborators or on a pure pop music level, or whatever.

he's like THIS close to being travie mccoy i just realized

oh i wouldn't go that far

gambino is at least interesting, travie mccoy is one of the most boring artists from basically any angle. at least listening to a gambino album would arise some emotion in me.

haha a friend of mine heard childish gambino on hot 97

i feel like hot 97 playing odd future and asap rocky has kinda dulled whatever it once meant to get played on hot 97

This record is better than Return of Bruno or 30 Seconds to Mars or Scarlett Johanssen's Tom Waits covers album or Dogstar, but not as good as Juliette and the Licks.

oh yeah that's just the latest in a long line of 'man what happened to you hot 97' anecdotes

i do wanna contribute for real tho that we were watching his recent comedy central performance and it was very poor. some of the material was funny, and we laughed a couple times. but this guy wrote on one of the tightest, funniest sitcoms of the last bunch of years, and is hilarious acting on Community, but just could not consistently put it together on the stage and maybe p4k is onto something that he's very insecure bc he really just seemed to lack confidence and experience in the standup. very nervous seeming.

― Mordy, Friday, 2 December 2011 20:27 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

tbh I have a good amount of empathy for him when he expresses frustration with disconnect between his experiences in "black" and "white" America since I've felt a lot of those some emotions and frustrations and it's not really something you're going to understand unless you've gone through something similar, but when he starts talking about "eating Oreos like the white girls that be blowin' me" I have to tap out

― OH NOES, Friday, 2 December 2011 21:12 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

Half his 2011 stand up was 'hey i'm black and like Obama'.

As a rap fan I don't care about bad jokes or to a lesser extent awkward mysogony if done well or 'appropriately' or 'in character' (none of these seem like the right term but i'm sure you get what I mean.) My big problem with Glover doing it is he presents himself as someone 'above' what 'stereotypical' 'gangsta' 'ignant' 'rap' 'music' to the point where he even has a song called Backpacker, again in 2011. You can't want to be Talib Kweli and make Odd Future rape jokes at the same time and not sound like a massive prick.

glover and aziz ansari are both gunning hard for my "hey i don't want to hear standup comedy about kanye west stfu and write jokes" award

and imo some of these lines might be quoted as great if they were by a goon-approved rapper.

as opposed to Donald Glover, who's just a goon in the sense he posted on the Something Awful forums back in the day.

community is straight garbage

basically, 100% of the people who bought his album (listened to it on npr, really) did so because of community, and 90% of those people think it's the best rap album of the decade because they understand all the words and they subconsciously convince themselves it's hilarious, because if they don't that's like betraying troy. this thread only exists because of brand loyalty.