Childish Gambino may be the best rapper that you haven’t heard of, but you won’t be able to hide from him forever, as his studio debut, entitled “Camp,” is blowing up right now.
From a man who seems to have already unlimited talents, the album furthers Donald Glover’s (Childish Gambino) already stellar reputation.
Maybe recognizable to most as “Troy” from the NBC comedy “Community,” or the black guy in the well-known Youtube skit “Bro-Rape,” Glover has already succeeded in film and screen acting, stand-up comedy, and screenwriting.
His screenwriting for the NBC show “30 Rock” won him an award from the Writers Guild of America, and his stand-up special “WEIRDO” just premiered Nov. 19 on Comedy Central.
Glover has already put out a substantial library of rap: three albums, two mixtapes, and an EP, yet “Camp” is his first official studio album. His style of rapping, like his talents, is varied, switching masterfully between spitting out hard and witty rhymes, to singing R&B hooks.
“Camp,” as an album, flows together nicely, telling the story of a man struggling with racial identity and acceptance, not being “hard” enough for the rap community, and not feeling at home in the white community.
The songs are driven by a hard deep bass drum/snare drum combo and Glover’s machine gun consistency style of rap, never letting up on his attack. The album is filled with diversity with soul-baring tracks like “Outside” and “Letter Home”, a killer club track in “Heartbeat”, and a rhyme dense rap standard in “Bonfire”.
What Donald Glover has given us is a breath of fresh air to rap and, along with Tyler, The Creator’s “Goblin,” one of the most relevant rap albums in the last few years.
It is certainly one of the most accessible rap albums out there, as not many of us know what it’s like to slang yack in the Bronx, but most of us know a thing about feeling like an outcast.
If you don’t live on the 11 block in the townhouses and didn’t hear me blast the album five times on repeat through my system last night as I wrote this, or you’ve never heard any of his songs, buy the album.
This piece of work is certified fresh, and I’m giving it five out of five stars.
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