Donald Glover A.K.A Childish Gambino 
 

PictureSome of you may be familiar with Donald Glover from either his stand up comedy or staring as Troy Barnes on the comedy series The Community, but I didn’t know Donald was also a rapper.

He has been releasing free downloadable mix tapes on his website for a couple of years now under the name “mcDJ” and is set to release his first studio CD titled Camp.

NPR.org actually has a first listen and review of the CD Camp and I was pleasantly surprised because…Donald Glover got skills!

Early on, some of the feedback and comments I am seeing is the quick comparison to Lil Wayne, Drake and Kanye West’s The College Dropout.  I can understand the comparison and that is because of the tone in flow, but other than that I would have to disagree.

The one thing I got from the CD and the interviews directly from Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) that I don’t get from mainstream rappers is the sense of honesty.


 

PictureI have listened to a lot of rap through out my life and I can’t recall hearing this type of deep honesty in a long time…probably not since rapper Common’s first or second studio CD.

He has some of the normal sex and bravado talk that you hear from any rapper today; but he also raps about not fitting in, being a geek, being called white, teased about talking white, going to a white school and the kids wanting to touch his hair, not being black enough or hard enough, etc.

But one lyric on the song Fire Fly caught me completely off guard…

“This rap stuff is magic, I used to get called Oreo and faggot”

Personally, I can’t ever recall a rapper, rapping about being teased and being called a “faggot”.  Again the overall feeling I got when I listened to the CD…is that this dude is being open and honest.

Childish Gambino’s lyrical skills and flow are on point…I describe them as serious, silly, truthful and honest.

Camp by Childish Gambino hits the stores on Tuesday November 15th…and Yes I will be picking up a copy.


You can listen to the entire CD or certain tracks here.  The video for the gritty song “Bonfire” is below:
 
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