Anyone else hear the new Childish Gambino record?

It's strangely good, granted I don't know jack about rap.

He's a much better beat chemist than he is a rapper, but it's interesting to see a wholly different side of someone I only know from sitcom tv.

being somewhat famous probably stunts it

"I'd die for my hood... Trayvon"

http://www.iamdonald.com/post/20343305161

I have been listening to Childish for a couple years now, love all his stuff...But this just doesn't seem like him.

I have been listening to Childish since episode 5 season 1 of Community

Really, ppp? I can't stand his music, am I missing something?

right after I posted my post I got scared that someone would think it was a real post

haha

ok

So now he's trying to be a (still punchline-based) southern rapper? Ugh.

whiney it cannot be a coincidence that you pledged a twitter hiatus and then literally hours later childish gambino drops a track grocery bagging trayvon martin. the universe is testing you, i fear you are to be a modern-day Job.

More like Gob.

tina fey raps on new childish gambino mixtape

Shame the thread from the sandbox had to stay there.

new album is called "because the internet"

Listening to an early leak now; not quite the rhyming skills as Kid Cudi or Jay Electronica, but still, this is a pretty fine slab for a TV actor/comedian (Donald Glover).

As i continue to listen, this record may render many of the early "Best of 2013" lists obsolete.

i shudder to think if it's even possible to have inferior rhyming skills to the guy who wrote this verse

http://youtu.be/QCi5YmAiiw4?t=3m46s

bodacious ignoramus

no great interest in hearing dude's new album, but:

Would your ideal eventual career path eventually mirror someone like Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld, Will Smith or Drake?

I want to be something completely different from everyone on that list.

Now, excluding Tina Fey from that list. Fuck, marry, kill.
Drake's my boy, but he would not be fun to fuck, that would be really sad. I'd probably fuck Will Smith because he's ripped. I'd marry Jerry Seinfeld because he's so fucking rich. So by process of elimination, I'd have to kill Drake.

Got 5 copies of this on red vinyl at the record store today. eBay prospectors were out in droves, those five copies lasted five minutes. I saw one go for $270 on eBay today; we were selling 'em for thirty bucks. Yikes

waht

Yup, reddit.com/r/vinyl gold

Numbered edition of 800

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Childish-Gambino-Because-the-Internet-Double-Vinyl-Bootleg-Numbered-Red-/301039950403?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item4617611a43

Wow, I just encountered someone who is unfamiliar with tv/movie Donald Glover and only knows of Childish Gambino as a new rap artist. Of course those people are out there, but I never figured I'd have one in my own sphere of friends.

that's gonna be more and more common. he's had a top 10 album, he's never been on a top 10 show.

Weird, I had no idea he was really taking off.

Last year I put out a call for the Internet to find me one Childish Gambino fan who wasn't also a Community fan. And a lot of people on Twitter tried, or thought they knew an exception, but ultimately not one could do it; the overlap between the two fanbases was 100%.

Obviously that's going to change now, but for the longest time it drove me nuts that the rap press treated this guy like a real rap act when clearly he was a TV tie-in. It would be like treating The Simpsons as an interesting musical sensation because Simpsons Sing the Blues sold some copies.

that might've been just your twitter circle, though. he definitely had music fans who've never seen the show, even before the last album.

as much as i'm not a fan, the tv tie-in thing is unfair. it's not like he was making rap songs about Community.

seems way harder for actors to get taken seriously as musicians than vice versa.

xxp I'm sure it was an age thing; if I followed more college sophomores one of them probably would have known some quiet kid in the dorm with a hard drive full of rap but no TV. But it was (and remains) silly the way some rap sites act like this guy's preexisting celebrity and built-in fanbase from the most cultishly adored show on television has nothing to do with his following

Listening to Because the Internet for the first time right now, and it's a marked improvement over the last time I heard him doing this.

seems way harder for actors to get taken seriously as musicians than vice versa.

usually that's true, but it's different when you're a vaguely comic rapper rapping about the same geeky subject matter as the TV show you star in

Like, I personally hear Troy Barnes trying on a rap guise as a gag, but to someone who's never watched Community, this is good enough to be a legit rap album.

as much as i'm not a fan, the tv tie-in thing is unfair. it's not like he was making rap songs about Community.

― festival culture (Jordan), Wednesday, February 5, 2014 4:36 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree w/ this, although it is funny that most of his stuff is produced by the Swedish dude who composes background music for Community

Hugh Laurie doesn't sing blues songs about ethically challenged doctors, either, but that doesn't mean 95% of the crowd at his show didn't watch House

But it was (and remains) silly the way some rap sites act like this guy's preexisting celebrity and built-in fanbase from the most cultishly adored show on television has nothing to do with his following

ok, that makes sense.

although it is funny that most of his stuff is produced by the Swedish dude who composes background music for Community

totally, and that dude should be the real star here.

Hugh Laurie doesn't sing blues songs about ethically challenged doctors, either, but that doesn't mean 95% of the crowd at his show didn't watch House

presumably you mean "at his show in America" here

Haha, my bad, didn't mean to insult the U.K. and Jeeves and Wooster fans around the world, sorry about that

is this album better or worse than Camp? Because that one was god-awful.

The half of it I listened to today was better than Camp imo.

(way better known in .au for Blackadder and A Bit Of than as an inappropriate Bertram [Ionicus or gtfo imo])

Did not listen to Childish's last 6 years of output, however have just had a listen to these fantastic two new tracks Redbone and Me and Your Mama.

Loving the Pink Floyd and Funkadelic vibes

Redbone is definitely 2016's best Prince track.

new album through the first four tracks a psych-funk groove for sure

I think it's great - ignore the haters who wanted a trap album. I think it's a bold move and am happy to see him stretch himself as an artist, too.

Haven't looked at the credits or anything, but curious to see who may have played on it/produced some of it.

Love Questlove's instagram post about it, too https://www.instagram.com/p/BNgjtqdBrnE/?taken-by=questlove

I'm happy that this isn't a trap album, just a little befuddled at the panegyrics this has been met with on some «whoah! live instrumentation! how rare!» ish. It's pleasant enough to listen to, but nothing I feel a particular urge to put on.

I don't like it very much AND I'm glad it wasn't trap. Redbone is fucking amazing, though.

It's pleasant enough to listen to

I... don't know if I'd go that far. That voice could peel wallpaper.

In what world did this guy think he had the voice or musical skillset to pull off a Bilal album?

i keep hearing good things abt this but super skeptical i hate this guy's music

it's kept me from watching Atlanta which is probably to my detriment

tbh half of it is all the non-rap fans i know who keep bigging up him like "i don't usually listen to rap but childish gambino is great" barf

I'm enjoying it but agree that it may not be panegyric worthy. Redbone is a jam.

Ha, ironically, I'll guess your non-rap fan circle will probably be disappointed he doesn't rap on this.

Atlanta is a terrific show, you should totally watch - nothing to do with Childish Gambino, either. Glover doesn't even play the rapper in the show. He is a better actor than he is anything else, to be fair.

I tolerated then grew to hate Camp and avoided everything else he did. The first track on "Awaken, My Love!" is really, REALLY good.

to me it feels as if he's always an actor. Here he's trying to portray a funk gawd.

LOL - https://medium.com/@marcuskdowling/childish-gambinos-new-album-is-a-deplorable-act-of-treason-c80e3f7cc062#.cfp24cqwt

Now I really will listen to it.

what the hell is that reviewer on

I mean, I turned the album off by about track 7 because I'd gotten the point and it was boring me but that reaction seems like it's fueled by something more pharmaceutical than righteous indignation.

Donald Glover is releasing Awaken, My Love in the midst of his most critically-acclaimed and commercially successful period as a creative

i swear to everyone i will never use "creative" as a noun

what the hell is that reviewer on

Hottakeaminiphen

^^^ I am not getting over this any time soon

Atlanta's incredible and this album's better than it has any right to be. Year Of The Glover.

just hearing this, and so far, it's basically straight up P-Funk ripping, with some slight Prince in there. Done really well/accurately mind you, but also reminds me of that other great P-Funk ripper, Lenny Kravitz, and as such, is hard to get really into

"redbone," does it sample connan mockasin? feels like it but i can't identify

ok it's not quite the same just similar. this is the tune i was thinking of, "caramel"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCz7zqfvP4

pretty close

tour w/ Rae Sremmurd.

i know Glover is getting pretty famous but i guess i'm surprised Childish Gambino can play arenas, even with Rae Sremmurd opening. or am i underestimating him? or do these venues include a post-Solo bump?

09-06 Atlanta, GA - Infinite Energy Arena
09-08 Chicago, IL - United Center
09-10 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
09-12 Boston, MA - TD Garden
09-14 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
09-18 Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center
09-19 Washington, DC - Capital One Arena
09-22 Houston, TX - Toyota Center
09-23 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
09-26 Inglewood, CA - The Forum
09-27 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena
09-29 Seattle, WA - KeyArena
09-30 Vancouver, British Columbia - Rogers Arena

That new video

...is really good. The SNL episode was better than average too.

i thought it was a really bad SNL episode actually, but his performances were good

childish gambino is karmin without the blackface

I still can't believe Redbone made it into the top 77 of our 2017 songs poll

I can, because it's fuckin good

Here's what showed up on my screen as soon as the last moments of the video ended:

https://i.imgur.com/USzSBZJ.png

The new song/video are 100% fire

^^^

childish gambino is karmin without the blackface

― carles danger mous (s.clover), Sunday, May 6, 2018 8:46 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

uh care to expand on that

yeah that's a pretty weird comment to lay out there. Is Glover/Gambino theatrical? Yes. otherwise I don't get what you're saying at all.

god there are so many bad takes on the video already and it's only monday morning

(not itt so much)

I took the Karmin comparison to mean "a showier, wild-appeal repackaging of popular contemporary sounds and ideas from an entertainer almost so good at it that it seems cynical."

except karmin are terrible and he isn't?

I was cringing at that Karmin comparison but didn't want to dissect what it means that a black person is not doing blackface.

I get that comment a little bit; I found the initial incarnation of Childish Gambino deeply, deeply unconvincing in sincerity of presentation; it always struck me as more of a “this is how a rapper would present this” pose rather than “I’m going to tell this story via rap” if that makes any sense. Karmin has a similar pose going on whenever Noonan raps and I find it super off putting and unenjoayble. CG on this track, both with the musical template, the story he’s telling, and the video he put with it, cleared a sincerity hurdle for me that lets me vibe without reservation with what he’s doing.

I feel similarly, early days CG felt a little theatrical, but now feels lived-in

The critical about-face on Gambino as the world’s most unnecessary punchline rapper to the world’s most important political auteur is staggering.

no question that the current incarnation of gambino is better than that initial incarnation. but donald glover is an extremely talented writer, and possibly the most gifted comic actor of his generation, and he should do that more and do music less.

Ok, I now understand that comment by reading it "prior to this weekend, childish gambino was karmin without the blackface."

"god there are so many bad takes on the video already and it's only monday morning"

are there?

remember when we didn't need an exegesis to enjoy a music video? those were the days

video and commentary aside, musically this is definitely one of the best songs he's ever done; catchy, memorable, excellent.

I mean on twitter the two duelling takes I keep seeing seem to be "zomg this is An Incisive Commentary and Everything We Need Right Now" vs "this is an Irresponsible and Problematic statement that emphasizes black-on-black violence and fails to address...[etc.]" and like honestly can we just not do this

anyway I want to echo everyone who said this song seems to represent a step up even if I'm not 100% convinced yet (by his music that is - Atlanta is amazing)

Teddy Perkins >>>>> this video, certainly

I mean on twitter the two duelling takes I keep seeing seem to be "zomg this is An Incisive Commentary and Everything We Need Right Now" vs "this is an Irresponsible and Problematic statement that emphasizes black-on-black violence and fails to address...[etc.]" and like honestly can we just not do this

― Simon H., Monday, May 7, 2018 7:37 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was it ever not thus?

I really liked the other song he did on SNL too. Like an upgraded Bruno Mars. A whole album of that please, especially since I was always fairly lukewarm on "Redbone."

Teddy Perkins >>>>> this video, certainly

― akm, Monday, May 7, 2018 12:59 PM (forty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbh not sure that Teddy Perkins would make my top 5 of S2 Atlanta episodes

tbh the comment was in regards to the latest video too. i've been really put-off by the amount this thing has been lauded. as political statements go its not very impressive imho and the very on-the-nose frission between the violence and gospel, the wry "look i'm rapping about guns" verses, the mugging in the video, all feels very theater-school or try-hard art project to me still. And the degree to which this is has been singled out as somehow above-and-beyond typical rap and r&b rather than a sort of clever-clever pastiche of it is has been getting to me.

dang, that new video

lol, oops sorry s. clover, that wasn't meant in response to you!

glad to see someone else with some positive words for "Saturday", I thought that one was pretty cool too and "upgraded Bruno Mars" is very much otm.

I liked the song Saturday better at first, until I saw the video for This is America.

Bruno Mars is exponentially better at singing, dancing, performing and writing hits, please explain what this “upgrade” is

I've just never connected with Bruno whatsoever. I get why people like him, I just have yet to not get immediately annoyed by any of his singles. "Saturday" seems a marginally more nuanced pastiche than Bruno's glaringly obvious ones.

s clover otm

I mean I don't see how it's in question that donald glover's current music is several orders of magnitude better than his old stuff

upgrade from Bruno mars not Childish Gambino

Children go nuts when Bruno Mars' music comes on. That and Party in the USA.

my roommate loves old childish gambino. imo it is barely music

"try-hard" is a great imprecise label for justifying your dislike of anything anywhere ever

Dude was rapping like Copywrite like three years ago but now he’s better than Bruno Mars

but he is better than bruno mars in some ways. the way the snl performance was choreographed and shot, for example, was better than bruno mars.

Bruno Mars used to perform at the Ala Moana mall, so you know, people grow.

donald glover gawked pete wentz better

I keep re-reading sterling's criticism of the video trying to find something I agree with. Nope.

I was all set to start arguing with Whiney and then people started saying Childish Gambino does Bruno Mars better than Bruno Mars so now I just want to delete this entire thread

And the degree to which this is has been singled out as somehow above-and-beyond typical rap and r&b rather than a sort of clever-clever pastiche of it is has been getting to me.

i haven't seen takes along those lines floating around yet but maybe i'm not tuned in to the right places.

i find it difficult to read "this is america" as any kind of 'pastiche' or overly-studied intellectual performance piece as much as something that seems to emerge pretty seamlessly from where contemporary black music is as an idiom right now! like, childish gambino is now a very successful mainstream recording artist with bona fide hits under his belt. even though yes, his most recent and biggest to date clearly *was* pastiche of a bygone musical era, that his next hit (as "america" very obviously will be) would bear the aesthetics of today's mainstream rap should not be even remotely surprising, even considering his past as a niche, hokey punchline-rapper (which apparently many of us can't let go of).

it's certainly presented in a manner, with the video especially, where it's meant to be read as overt commentary, even if the listener doesn't immediately know what to make of it and only has a vague sense of each line or shot's specific poetic 'meaning'. but it's a mistake to assume that the political messages it wears on its sleeve are substantially different from the subtext of many contemporary hits that have been percolating through the ether at any given moment over the past few years.

another thing. through much of the history of pop music, there's been a strong tendency for (white) americans, however much they enjoy or dislike it, to view contemporary black music (celebratory and despondent alike) merely as raw, unpracticed and unrefined expression that almost-accidentally happens to resonate in the wider culture rather than as art that takes skill to create and finely honed intuition to connect to its audience. young thug, quavo and 21 savage are among the several other contemporary artists peppering contributions here-n-there throughout the track. is gambino's supposedly intellectualized, studied 'pastiche' inadvertently making a mockery of these artists and the idiom they operate within? does anyone believe none of those other artists included would be capable of creating or performing this himself, or that none could do it 'authentically'? is this just another lil dicky getting fetty wap to sing "we're gonna save that money!" on "thrift shop" version 0.6?

for me it's not, but ymmv.

anyway i'm going to stop thinking now and just say that bruno mars is good but not that good, and the same is true of mr. glover.

I still get emotional each time I watch the video. I find it highly thoughtful for this moment in time.

OTM. Sometimes it's okay to just leave the chins unstroked.

Not to take anything away from DG, but I feel like Ludwig Goransson has been underrated as a producer (even having done Black Panther)

I don't think anyone seriously thinks that childish gambino does bruno mars better than bruno mars. I also don't think bruno mars does anything so singular that it must be described as bruno marsing, though. Anyway, it's easy to locate a perceived "upgrade" over bruno mars within the obvious ways that the two artists are different instead of the imagined idea that CG is somehow beating BM at his own game.

Extremely weird to me to even compare the two. They're so different!

Bruno's last record was a semi-effective pastiche of 80s R&B. Donald's last record was a semi-effective pastiche of 70s R&B.

Personally I don’t see why rappers can’t be theater-school kids (& vice-versa). Though I suppose dyl kind of gets at that up above.

Rappers can mostly do whatever they want but if you go out of your way to present yourself as "apart" from what it is you're doing, like he did in his earlier work, people inevitably start talking about your artistic credibility. This whole conversation is an extension of that.

Can't put my finger on why Mars falls in for a similar kind of flack other than maybe being too calculated in his approach or something.

it's a mistake to assume that the political messages it wears on its sleeve are substantially different from the subtext of many contemporary hits that have been percolating through the ether at any given moment over the past few years

― dyl, Monday, May 7, 2018 9:33 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'd agree with this. except that i think that gambino's is delivered with a wink and a nod, an ironic distance that says "look when i'm talking about materialism i don't mean it, i'm criticizing that people talk about guns and money as the problem, as the distraction while the real stuff is happening elsewhere," which is precisely what's denying that these same themes and issues are elsewhere, but presented without that sort of dimestore brechtian distancing, and often more genuinely and sharply, while this is all reflected through so much artifice that it doesn't feel like it connects to me -- it represents connecting, and it simulates making a statement. moves right past brecht to baudrillard.

this really isn't coming on my part on any relationship to the prior gambino stuff, which i didn't feel much about either way -- it's all right on the surface of the This is America video.

This is America is so good

xp once more with coherence

I guess I'm that guy but this song sounds just like the Cashmeoutside girl's song and the video is directed in the same style idk maybe that's the point.

YOU GUYS THIS SONG IS SO GOOD

naw I understand what you're saying, Sterl, but you're just wrong. I'd argue that there's no such thing as dimestore brechtian distancing, just brechtian distancing, & that this is something the video does well. the dancing, gestures, expressions, and staging bitterly & ironically
& distortedly reflect jump jim crow past & present, and the suddenness of the violence is effectively jolting, and the discomfort and confusion of both of those instances of brechtian distancing do their job, which is to get a mass audience talking about the social and political issues presented in the song & video.

the lyrics themselves might offer "dimestore" pop ironies about violence & materialism but you're also wrong to use dimestore as a pejorative, just because. I won't argue this point on ilx of all places. & please note that these lyrics, whether their irony is facile or not, are anchored by the spookiest, most profound line in the song, "Don't catch you slippin up," the line that pins a much too corporeal reality to lines that otherwise seem ephemeral and light and scattershot, as if those are inherently bad things (they're not).

& whether the talk of materialism & gun violence are ironic feints or not, your arguing that you know where the glass bead game of popular art - or any art - should start & stop to be sincere & effective & uh artful is like the libertarian knowing where the law & government regulations should start & stop to be just & productive & useful. your quibbling is a point-missing calculus and, like, remind me not to be a 10 year old kid showing you my truly excellent & weird refrigerator-worthy drawing because you'd say it's derivative of the most mawkish efforts of a lesser CalArts grad or something.

& whether the talk of materialism & gun violence are ironic feints or not (slight reprise), you don't argue convincingly how that's a bad thing. you jump straight to your own garbled idea of what you think it really means and how your words in Glover's mouth must make "This Is America" bad art.

Video is equally striking but it holds up something fierce on its own

swagger jacking sada baby is it

Thewufs otm

bamcquern -- the idea that "Don't catch you slippin up" is somehow a profound line is the sort of thing that gets me here. This sentiment is expressed all the time in rap tracks in almost those exact words. its almost a cliche. And those tracks sound equally if not more intense, claustrophobic, and are narratively more rich because there's things going on besides just the play and juxtaposition of phrases. You can't just take this cliche that expresses something both common but also, yes, intense, and then say that it became profound because glover made a funny face while saying it and was in a carpark instead of on a streetcorner or something.

you say that the "job" of these devices is to "get a mass audience talking about the social and political issues presented in the song & video" but i don't see that happening. people see what they want in the video -- but seriously, cities have been erupting in protests for some years now, the news cycle has been dominated by all sorts of issues. like... what _actually_ is this video going to get people to "talk" about that wasn't already there? The response I've seen thus far has been outlets just praising the mere reference to the _existence_ of issues, paired with like a rundown of various scenes in the background and what they're supposed to represent like captain midnight's secret decoder ring. honestly it feels like a big-budget version of SNL's "high school theater" sketch.

I don't see distancing to the song or video - a lot of what's compelling to me is the way the elements are presented without being commented on, Glover implicating himself in everything he's rapping about.

Presuming intentional Profundity then judging on that basis can lead one down some bad paths.

I'm trying hard to make the connection between the artist who created this song/video/performance and the Super Bowl Halftime guy who did "Moves Like Jagger".

I need to go back to the M.I.A. thread and see who compared her to Katy Perry.

TBF above it looks like that Bruno Mars comparison was originally just about the song Saturday.

This song is flat out awesome and the video only made it better for me.

So much of hip-hop (all of it?) is politically charged anyway, it's amusing to me why people are latching on to to the political element of this video so much.

I don't know why I did it, knowing the likely outcome, but I just read Armond White's take on it. He makes some points that I think Sterling was alluding to above. I should use this frustration and go exercise now.

This thread has been awaiting Armond White's response, especially if NRO ran it.

tbh I'd like to know your response too Al

TBF above it looks like that Bruno Mars comparison was originally just about the song Saturday.

This. But, y'know, ilm threads will always be about 80% people purposely misreading someone's opinion in order to prove a different point.

Only for my own sake of clarity, all I was saying is that, to me, "Saturday" was a more effective 80s pastiche than Bruno's 80s pastiche songs. That's it. In no way whatsoever was I claiming that "Childish Gambino does Bruno Mars better than Bruno Mars".

Give examples, sterl. which songs use this line? and do they have the same context? ie, I believe, simply being Black in America?

the devices do their "job" successfully because people are talking about the song and it's social and political import. like we are now. you want them to talk about it in a different way?

the secret decoder ring exegesis seems to be your preferred way of engaging with art, which is maybe why you're dissatisfied with the song. most people aren't taking this positivist add-it-up approach because it's art and they tacitly understand art isn't a math problem of sufficient or insufficient quantities.

I dunno I'm on ilx so I should expect greater than/lesser than crit. "there's another unspecified song that does this better." "there's another specified song that does it better and its aims are exactly the same and btw music is so strictly quantitative that this is a valuable way to talk about it."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/entertainment/trayvon-martin-father-this-america/index.html

people just believe any goddamned thing they see on twitter apparently

bamcquern you have literally misread every word i wrote.

cool cool cool. except I haven't.

you said the brechtian distancing isn't doing its job. I said it is. thousands of people are having conversations about the song & its message & its politics just like we're having. people talking about themes within and adjacent to the song before the song existed is not some deficiency of the song's.

it's true, you said the sentiment of the line is trite, which to me is a very broad complaint and completely elides the poetry and placement of the line, but you also said "in almost those exact words." Which exact words? And I'd argue that, yes, the line is forceful (not necessarily "more" forceful) embedded in the "play and juxtaposition of phrases." the specific words are important because poetry isn't horseshoes.

his face has nothing to do with whether the line is good or not.

except that i think that gambino's is delivered with a wink and a nod, an ironic distance that says "look when i'm talking about materialism i don't mean it, i'm criticizing that people talk about guns and money as the problem, as the distraction while the real stuff is happening elsewhere," which is precisely what's denying that these same themes and issues are elsewhere, but presented without that sort of dimestore brechtian distancing, and often more genuinely and sharply, while this is all reflected through so much artifice that it doesn't feel like it connects to me -- it represents connecting, and it simulates making a statement. moves right past brecht to baudrillard.

this is the decoder ring shit - your own, not unnamed critics. this is what I mean by a calculus & you're the one that brought this mode of criticism & appreciation (or lack of) to the thread. you've made yourself the arbiter of when gambino is being ironic & how ironical he's being; you're putting words in gambino's mouth and evaluating how sincere he is or isn't being; you're talking about themes like they're manipulable units, as if identifying what's being talked about in art robs it of its power.

& you clearly make comparative mentions not only to other rap tracks.

remove "not only" bc I don't need to get into it

"you've made yourself the arbiter of when gambino is being ironic"

you mean i've attempted to perform a critical reading of a text? go home.

https://media2.giphy.com/media/xTiTnJ3BooiDs8dL7W/giphy.gif

^^ new borad description tbf

The video is so good. Wish the lyrics were as powerful but I’m all in for this new phase of CG after not being a fan of his previous works.

Like the song but Glover seems like a bit of an egotist

https://78.media.tumblr.com/12b64ae950e7310945e9941ae07863be/tumblr_ncc65lyqzQ1s2wio8o1_500.gif

This is America vid feels very Kendrick-lite to me

nothing wrong with Kendrick being an influencer IMO particularly for songs and/or videos that have this kind of wide viewership

"dimestore brechtian distancing"

as opposed to threepenny brechtian distancing?

Xpost: agreed. Idk if Kendrick-lite is meant as an insult but more rappers emulating him is desirable imho.

this is all reflected through so much artifice that it doesn't feel like it connects to me -- it represents connecting, and it simulates making a statement.

I guess this was my takeaway, too; the video had me thinking more about its production and technical aspects than it “connected” emotionally or intellectually (but seems I’m in the minority, and it’s not a hill I’ll die on). There certainly are a lot of “decoder rings” all over YouTube, etc. I’m sure that’s part of the point with all the signifiers, to get people learning about things they maybe weren’t aware of.

jfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUWq_aBiE_s&feature=youtu.be

link doesn't work for me

doesn’t even sync up that well

I think the buy-in point is the gun firing when the chorus starts.
Anyway it’s a positive “jfc” from me

uuuh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8whgmyTNU

oh my god

dying at the thumbs up/down ratio there.

https://i.imgur.com/xdIwcrr.jpg

It's terrible, obviously, but I also have no clue what she is "singing".

I browsed her youtube channel a bit and I think she may be a kind of career youtube troll, and a really boring one at that

#1 on the Hot 100.

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

What about Gambino's version? x-post

Is this a reach?

This will largely be overlooked but it sounds like same damn song and this was released a few years prior.

Has this been discussed? https://t.co/kqTSH4fTrv

— Baby Freeway 🇧🇷🇳🇬 (@RappersRActors) June 24, 2018

Initial reaction was yeah but repeat listens has me questioning

I don't know, but it's a good track.

Great track that happens to have the same flow, same subject matter and strikingly similarly stripped down percussive trap beat with vocal chants.

Either way the artist seems to be cool with it so may as well leave it at that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkc_rJJg27q/?hl=en&taken-by=jaseharley

I feel like Weird Al needs to make a parody of 'This is America' (partly because the music video would be great).
What would it be titled?

I feel like he doesn't

i feel like he needn't make any more music ever again but i realize i'm in the minority on that one

This is Antarctica.

Love this is America

Love this is America Style

new video is neat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1B9Fk_SgI0

The aesthetic is kinda simpsonswave.

track really nails the sound it's evidently aiming for but the song could be better

guy rly does have a messiah complex but i liked the cheerfully slight guava island: v deliberate leftwing fable, indulgently pretty (loved the aspect and the fake? 16mm grain, but the rounded edges were a bit much), funny, short, casually zero white people. rihanna is underused i guess but i kind of admired the willingness to underuse rihanna. chops provided by nonso anozie, whom i recognized immediately but couldn't place-- he's done lear and othello so naturally it turned out what i'd seen him in is a bit part in s1 game of thrones. anyway, just nice to watch something tropical.

the first article i found while googling around to figure out if it was actually shot on 16 was an all-hands-on-deck DONALD GLOVER DOESN'T UNDERSTAND CAPITALISM. CAPITALISM HAS LIFTED BILLIONS OUT OF POVERTY. IN 1900 THE AVERAGE WAGE WAS ONLY $3. AS JONAH GOLDBERG WRITES IN "THE DECLINE OF THE WEST", etc., so well done there.

it's Murai, right? he does so much digital grading on his other stuff that I'd assume the same here. 16mm instagram filter.

yeah. too bad imo.

Apparently Donald Glover Presents was streamed this weekend. I haven't heard it yet, anyone have some thoughts?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/donald-glover-surprise-release-new-album-967548/

That article is out of date, as the stream apparently disappeared later in the day.

It’s back up. Listening now. It’s .... really fucking good?

This is amazing. One of the best records of the year on first listen, and quite the zeitgeist record at that.

finally hearing this and it is great. my fav stuff from this guy yet for sure.

I keep hearing Redbone in public and it's always a pleasure. Feels like it has really lasted beyond its time and become a classic

Me too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj0drevGOgA

nothing exemplifies the vapid posturing of a lot of “creative” types during the trump era better than childish gambino dropping this and then joining the andrew yang campaign the following year https://t.co/06pLCPZWwm

— Fred Barrett (@fred_beretta) April 30, 2023

Updated/finished version of 3.15.20 came out a few weeks ago as Atavista. Great vid for (still) one of the best tracks on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLX1HxJm5wM

I saw that a rapper named C.Gambino was killed yesterday, but he was from Sweden.

Claes Gambino