Official Childish Gambino (Donald Glover from Community) Thread - Signs multiyear deal w/ Amazon and opts out of FX partnership

[AZwildcats]

I gave this a full spin, and I this album is actually pretty good. It is way better than I expected and I was really impressed by some of the lyrics. The wordplay is clever and makes you think the whole time. The production is well done and once again the lyricism was dope. I will be spinning it a couple more times

My only gripe is that he raps WAY too much about how he was made fun of for not being black enough. Its getting annoying. Also a lot of these beats are too similar. I'd like to see him try different types of beats on, the ones he uses all have the same drum in them.

 

[twizzi]

Camp one of the most valid albums i bought this year, i bought drakes take care at 10 am and camp at 1pm on tuesday i haven't listened to drakes album since

 

[mytmouse76]

Originally Posted by MetroKid26

Originally Posted by bkmac

Donald Glover: Weirdo stand-up premiers on Saturday 11/19 @ 11PM EST on Comedy Central?!

.

terrible

 

[jd161616]

Originally Posted by AZwildcats

I gave this a full spin, and I this album is actually pretty good. It is way better than I expected and I was really impressed by some of the lyrics. The wordplay is clever and makes you think the whole time. The production is well done and once again the lyricism was dope. I will be spinning it a couple more times

My only gripe is that he raps WAY too much about how he was made fun of for not being black enough. Its getting annoying. Also a lot of these beats are too similar. I'd like to see him try different types of beats on, the ones he uses all have the same drum in them.

My thoughts exactly. Love the album, but the 'I got made fun of/not black enough' bit got old and if he's not saying something about that, insert line about Asian girls.
Production is top notch.

 

[grimey]

Originally Posted by Rafool

Never listened to the guy until Camp, I'm a fan now.

Gonna check out EP as well.

check out culdesac aswell

 

[drew]

There isn't a Clean version of Camp is there?
I picked up a copy and just realized that there was no Parental Advisory label on it. 

I didn't want to open it until I know that there is only one version of this album.

-Drew

 

[cragmatic]

Originally Posted by robxdrew

There isn't a Clean version of Camp is there?
I picked up a copy and just realized that there was no Parental Advisory label on it. 

I didn't want to open it until I know that there is only one version of this album.

-Drew

Yeah, somehow he just got by without a PA sticker. I was worried too, especially when I popped it in the computer and iTunes said (Clean) But the album is definitely not clean.... lol

 

[visualmusic]

^There isn't, don't worry. I was afraid I had the clean version as well. Especially when I put it in my iTunes, it said 'Clean'

. Don't know why but you're good.

 

[venom lyrix]

The stand up special was meh, some funny parts but for the most part it was bland. I don't mind him being a jack of all trades, this just didn't do much for me.

Camp is till fuego

 

[drew]

Originally Posted by Cragmatic

Originally Posted by robxdrew

There isn't a Clean version of Camp is there?
I picked up a copy and just realized that there was no Parental Advisory label on it. 

I didn't want to open it until I know that there is only one version of this album.

-Drew

Yeah, somehow he just got by without a PA sticker. I was worried too, especially when I popped it in the computer and iTunes said (Clean) But the album is definitely not clean.... lol

Originally Posted by visualmusiC

^There isn't, don't worry. I was afraid I had the clean version as well. Especially when I put it in my iTunes, it said 'Clean'

. Don't know why but you're good.

Dope. I got worried. 

I gave the album a listen. I definitely like it. I gave it a 4/5.

Someone help me clarify though. What exactly is "Camp"? Reviewers are saying that there's a meaning behind why he called it that.

-Drew

 

[rocman23]

^ I believe it has a lot to do with the dialogue in that power. When you think about it camp is supposed to be some of the greatest and most treasured memories of your life. People grow up at camp and are greatly influenced by their experiences at camp. I believe that the themes in the album are like his camp, these are the experiences that have molded him to who he is today. The memories that have lasted a life time for him, the journeys that led to him growing up, or lack there of as referenced by him never getting off of the bus.

 

[kevin cleveland]

I can't stress enough how good of a song I think All the Shine is.

 

[jd161616]

Camp sold 51,070 copies first week. Not bad at all IMO for an indie release

 

[thegoogler]

Originally Posted by JD161616

Camp sold 51,070 copies first week. Not bad at all IMO for an indie release

Nice

 

[beh235]

I'm super late, but dude is dope as %%#%. I'm so sorry it took me this long to believe he raps for real. This is definitely the best hip hop album of the year. Yes, I said it. Fight me on it.

 

[venom lyrix]

51K limited promo, with one single that didn't get a ton of airplay.

You can see he has loyal fans.

 

[heatpinoyboy]

I dunno if I'm late or night but, Tyler the Creator & Childish Gambino were on that cartoon "Regular Show." Caught it earlier today and I had to share.

 

[big j 33]

I'm quite pleased with 50k first week, indie label, little promotion, no features... not bad.

Finally had time to go pick up the album today from Target, happy to support Glover.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Wow, 50k?

That's a great look.

 

[venom lyrix]

how are the sales doing now?

have more people listened to the album?

what are your thoughts now that it's been out a few weeks?

 

[heelish]

All the talent in the world, but he uses it to rap about the corniest things ever. Talking about "being" white & not being accepted by blacks, yet he seems to want acceptance. It's strange. Even Drake and Big Sean would clown this guy.

 

[boys noize]

Not a fan of Donald Glover (I find him really corny both as a rapper and as an actor) but damn... He seemed to get pretty 'ok' reviews going by metacritic but Pitchfork panned him hard. The last time I remember a rap record getting this little love was Lupe's 'Lasers'

They gave him a 1.6

If you buy only one hip-hop album this year, I'm guessing it'll be Camp. The album maintains some of the overweening humor of Donald Glover's sitcom "Community", but Glover's exaggerated, cartoonish flow and overblown pop-rap production are enough to make Campone of the most uniquely unlikable rap records of this year (and most others). What's worse is how he uses heavy topics like race, masculinity, relationships, street cred, and "real hip-hop" as props to construct a false outsider persona. On record, he paints himself as a misunderstood victim of cultural preconceptions who is obviously smarter and funnier than his primetime material suggests. Unfortunately, it's a position that holds up to absolutely no scrutiny whatsoever.

Glover's not doing himself any favors with a rap handle taken from the Wu-Tang Name Generator, but that'd be easy to overlook if Camp functioned as anything more than a series of similar one-note gags. On a song-by-song basis, he scripts a slightly off-brand, fictional version of Kanye West being played for laughs. We could talk about Glover's bloodlines all day, but Childish Gambino's paternity test traces straight back to "All Falls Down". "You See Me" reimagines "$%*%#@ in Paris" as a meme cemetery, with Glover painfully leaning into herniated punchlines like, "She's an overachiever/ All she does is suck seed." (Or maybe "Asian girls everywhere... UCLA!" will eventually end up on a T-shirt.) The bottle-service electro of "Heartbeat" could have been the 10th-funniest song on 808s & Heartbreak-- somewhere between "The Coldest Winter" and "Love Lockdown"-- and it's actually trying for laughs. A few of Camp's tracks focus on more inspirational topics than "making up for the %*#!+ I missed in high school," but they usually emulate "Jesus Walks", or when trying to be slightly more humble,"Get By". And any shred of relatability Glover establishes by reminiscing about sinkbaths with his cousin, or trying to fit into the white school his parents busted their *$!%* to send him to, are cancelled out by R&B hooks so garish and impersonal they make Lupe Fiasco's Lasers sound dignified.

Supporters may rush to praise Glover as a "multi-talent" due to Camp's self-production, but his cratedigging begins with The College Dropout and ends with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, all of it Blingee'd up with assistance from "Community" composer Ludwig Goransson. Yes, that's a lot of Yeezy talk, but the most insidious aspect of Camp is how Glover operates from a pre-Kanye inferiority complex where he senses that any dismissal of his music stems from gangsta rap still being the predominant aesthetic version of hip-hop (never mind that the most commercially relevant guy who can be feasibly be called "gangsta rap" right now is Rick Ross, and even he's widely beloved on account of being an acknowledged pathological liar). This much is obvious from the tone-deaf "All of the Shine," and especially "Backpackers", a preemptive strike at his always-male, usually educated haters. Note how its title co-opts the one epithet more outdated than "hipster" in rap music circa 2011.

Glover isn't strictly a comedy rapper, but he flows like a comic actor: When he's trying to be playful, his voice hitches in a pubescent squeak, and when he "goes in," he's still delivering one room-clearing punchline after another with the earnestness of the most confused Rhymesayers guy ever. At the very least, Camp can serve as hashtag rap's tombstone, and I'll just present some choice quotes without comment so you can decide for yourself: "I made the beat and murdered it, Casey Anthony," "You can kiss my %@$, Human Centipede," "I got a girl on my arm, dude show respect/ Something crazy and Asian, Virginia Tech."

Every attempt Glover makes to present himself as an inside operative confounding stereotypes about mainstream rap rings totally false. In "Fire Fly", he brags about the ease of scoring college gigs and college girls (while rhyming "LSU" with "molest you") and then complains: "No live shows because I can't find sponsors/ For the only black guy at a Sufjan concert." @+++%$!#. OK, look: I realize that there's a chance some kid will hear that line and feel validated, and you know, the last thing we need is an armchair cracker like myself relating contrary anecdotal evidence about the demographics at Sufjan Stevens' last concert. So let's just look at the facts: Jay-Z and Beyoncé could be seen at Grizzly Bear shows in 2009, Justin Vernon has a free pass to jump on any track he chooses, and producers spent the year sampling Beach House, the xx, and Tame Impala. How does Glover explain Drake? Is he "crazy or hood," or just a half-Jewish, former child actor from Toronto who's already sold 600,000 copies of Take Care while signed to Lil Wayne's record label? I mean, sub-major hip-hop isn't a post-cred, post-racial utopia by any means, but I can't think of another time when there were more options for listeners of just about any race or background seeking to identify with rappers on a non-allegorical level. I just have to assume Glover has completely ignored the success of Lil B, Main Attrakionz, Curren$y, Kendrick Lamar, Odd Future, Danny Brown, and especially Das Racist when he meekly moans, "Is there room in the game for a lame that rhymes/ And wears short shorts and tells jokes sometimes?" It's the perfect summation of Camp: preposterously self-obsessed, but not the least bit self-aware. Tell me that ain't insecure.

 

[zmdawg]

Originally Posted by heelish

All the talent in the world, but he uses it to rap about the corniest things ever. Talking about "being" white & not being accepted by blacks, yet he seems to want acceptance. It's strange. Even Drake and Big Sean would clown this guy.

+1

Dude needs to relax when it comes to this stuff. Just get tired of it. Was the same on the mixtapes too......no way he can keep releasing stuff with the same issues. I've run out of sympathy for him.

 

[sooperhooper]

That article was a masterpiece. A little harsh but I agree.

 

[eplaya06]

Originally Posted by sooperhooper

That article was a masterpiece. A little harsh but I agree.