Continuing in the theme of TV/music duality, I present another post on something that deserves bigger press.
Behold, Mr. Donald Glover!
Mr. Glover is the actor who plays Troy on the absolutely fantastic Community. He also does stand up, was a writer for the unparalleled 30 Rock and starred in the indie hit Mystery Team, produced by his comedic troupe Derrick Comedy. All of this is only secondary to today's column, though, as the thing I want you to know about (aside from the awesomely funny things he acts in) is his musical endeavors under the moniker Childish Gambino.
I had seen Donald on Community and found him to be incredibly funny. So when I saw he was on the Nerdist podcast last spring I was surprised to hear him talk about his music career in addition to his comedy and acting. Conveniently they played one of his songs, the grandstanding 'Hero', at the end of the episode. I was really surprised by what I heard and sought out his blog (I Am Donald, where he posts his music, things he loves and videos of his material, NSFW) and downloaded his songs. Apparently professional acting, stand up and writing for one the funniest shows on TV wasn't enough to scratch the creative itch for Donald, since he has been rapping and making music since his teens. Having released an album titled 'Sick Boi' (after his rap crew), a pair of surprisingly good self-produced mixtapes (I Am Just A Rapper 1&2), and another album, 'Poindexter', he established a style and voice for himself that stands out from the crowd. After the excellent but brief mixtapes he released one after the other, last year he put out an entire album, 'Culdesac', for free. It's available here, check it out.
One of the most charming and fun things about his work as a rapper is his use of so many indie samples to construct his beats and songs. Hearing him rap over Grizzly Bear changes the whole tone of the original song, 'Two Weeks', for me. I actually prefer it with the Childish Gambino vocals on top. It's a positive and energetic take on the oddball song. Sleigh Bells have been used to super-rad effect, as well. I have to wonder what the New York duo think when Childish Gambino starts rapping over the massive opening drums of 'New Prince'. For an interesting effect, he leaves the original vocal track on the entirety of 'Infinity Guitars', so the Sleigh Bells singing sounds like it's always been in the background. For me it takes a bad ass song and makes it more bad ass.
Often times when you get a comedian or actor making music it comes off as contrived or diluted, more like a vanity project (I'm looking at you, Billy Bob, Keanu and Russell). Not so with Glover. Here was a young guy sounding passionate and displaying an intelligence and wit that you rarely see in mainstream hip hop, let alone someone who isn't grinding away at it as their only career. This was just one of many gigs for Donald and he was handling it better than a lot of his contemporaries. The energy and intensity he brings to his music feels much more natural and easy than some of the forced bravado you come across in modern hip hop - it's strange to find yourself surprised to hear someone enjoy what they're doing for a change. That's the great thing about Glover doing this - he does it for the love he has for music, not to become successful, instead of the other way around.
Take just a short trip through Google and you'll soon see more than a few comparisons to Lil Wayne's delivery and Kanye's swagger. While these comparisons aren't far off the mark in some cases, I still feel like Glover has his own voice, so long as he doesn't spend his time boasting about all he's accomplished in life. Then again, what is hip hip with out the occasional bragging, right? Any kind of success, especially in the public forum, takes a confidence and self-assured nature on even the smallest level. When you are given free range to write about your life, especially in a field where boasting is so common (some would say integral), it's going to come up. Hopefully your ability as a wordsmith can overcome the crutch that is bragging for bragging's sake, which inevitably comes across as empty talk. Regardless, the tone with which Glover raps is great - listen to Culdesac and the mixtapes enough and you really get a larger sense of not only who he is but how he sees himself in the world. Happy to have found success, he continues to grind away solely for the joy of it and sounds phenomenal doing it.
Using both live instruments and a great array of samples to record Culdesac, Glover created an album whose tones and feels change from song to song, allowing for a variety of styles to shine. However this musical schizophrenia prevents any one of these styles from really having an enduring opportunity to shine. It's an album that's both amazing and beguiling for this very reason - you hear this great song, like 'I Be On That' and then the next song can be such an abrupt shift in style that you get frustrated everything is so different. An amazingly well crafted opener, Different, starts with just a sparse, repeating piano and military drums, Glover rapping about feeling different or isolated. It's a fantastic way to start the album, if only the rest of the tone followed suit in such an intensely introspective manner. But the style changes, as the next track (the previously mentioned 'Hero') starts with blaring, bombastic horns and Glover starts to rap about his success and accomplishments. Down the line, the smooth and sultry 'So Fly' follows the light and indie-ish 'Got This Money', furthering the strange combinations of tone.
I write all this and it sounds harsh, but I really do think what he's doing is fantastic, if for no other reason than his passion for it. Here's someone who is doing just fine (he's actually terribely funny) but makes all this awesome hip hip just because he loves it. On top of that - it's totally free. He puts it all online, on his blog, along with remixes and material his fans submit using his beats or accapellas. There's also a new mixtape coming up and from the track he's previewed it sounds like he's only getting better. Hopefully he won't get sidetracked with one of his other 30 careers first. Check him out.
Behold, Mr. Donald Glover!
I had seen Donald on Community and found him to be incredibly funny. So when I saw he was on the Nerdist podcast last spring I was surprised to hear him talk about his music career in addition to his comedy and acting. Conveniently they played one of his songs, the grandstanding 'Hero', at the end of the episode. I was really surprised by what I heard and sought out his blog (I Am Donald, where he posts his music, things he loves and videos of his material, NSFW) and downloaded his songs. Apparently professional acting, stand up and writing for one the funniest shows on TV wasn't enough to scratch the creative itch for Donald, since he has been rapping and making music since his teens. Having released an album titled 'Sick Boi' (after his rap crew), a pair of surprisingly good self-produced mixtapes (I Am Just A Rapper 1&2), and another album, 'Poindexter', he established a style and voice for himself that stands out from the crowd. After the excellent but brief mixtapes he released one after the other, last year he put out an entire album, 'Culdesac', for free. It's available here, check it out.
Often times when you get a comedian or actor making music it comes off as contrived or diluted, more like a vanity project (I'm looking at you, Billy Bob, Keanu and Russell). Not so with Glover. Here was a young guy sounding passionate and displaying an intelligence and wit that you rarely see in mainstream hip hop, let alone someone who isn't grinding away at it as their only career. This was just one of many gigs for Donald and he was handling it better than a lot of his contemporaries. The energy and intensity he brings to his music feels much more natural and easy than some of the forced bravado you come across in modern hip hop - it's strange to find yourself surprised to hear someone enjoy what they're doing for a change. That's the great thing about Glover doing this - he does it for the love he has for music, not to become successful, instead of the other way around.
Using both live instruments and a great array of samples to record Culdesac, Glover created an album whose tones and feels change from song to song, allowing for a variety of styles to shine. However this musical schizophrenia prevents any one of these styles from really having an enduring opportunity to shine. It's an album that's both amazing and beguiling for this very reason - you hear this great song, like 'I Be On That' and then the next song can be such an abrupt shift in style that you get frustrated everything is so different. An amazingly well crafted opener, Different, starts with just a sparse, repeating piano and military drums, Glover rapping about feeling different or isolated. It's a fantastic way to start the album, if only the rest of the tone followed suit in such an intensely introspective manner. But the style changes, as the next track (the previously mentioned 'Hero') starts with blaring, bombastic horns and Glover starts to rap about his success and accomplishments. Down the line, the smooth and sultry 'So Fly' follows the light and indie-ish 'Got This Money', furthering the strange combinations of tone.
