Childish Gambino – “Pound Cake Freestyle”Ī big part of what kept Gambeezy at the margins of music until “Awaken, My Love!” was our culture’s “There Can Only Be One” problem. “If we were kids/ I’d want to give you everything that you would want,” Glover coos on one of the best hooks of his career at that point, only to have it gorgeously doubled by a violin throughout.Ĩ. This late Camp cut lightly swirls tinkling xylophone with soft strings to juxtapose the complications of adult love and the pure simplicity of childhood crushes. It stays on topic from there, mulling and dreading isolation, rejection and two-faced Hollywood minions, while gifting us with the gem, “They laughed at my rise like my motion was funny/ Ashy to classy, my lotion is money.” ![]() ![]() Syrupy synth underscores a killer Royalty mixtape collab between the Houston hero Bun B and Atlanta outcast-turned-idol Gambino, while an airy sample from French house DJ Kavinsky adds a layer of fun.įears and insecurities have been standard in hip-hop for a long while now, but opening an EP by falsetto-belting “I don’t wanna be alone” with this level of anguish and earnestness just wasn’t something hip-hop heavy hitters did in 2011. “I never ever thought that I would be scared,” he admits, “Of living in a world where you are not there.”ġ3. His sophomore drop Poindexter arrived in 2009, the same day NBC’s Community premiered, and with it came this genuinely anguished, fantastically rapped plea to an ex. But for now, “ Awaken, My Love!” is an enthralling trip into the land of funk.Glover’s pre- Camp work was marked by an ultra-nasal voice and a lot of flows nakedly cribbing from Lil Wayne and Jay-Z, but once in a while the DNA of the artist he’d become bubbled up. Only time will tell if Childish Gambino has remade himself into the post-millennial D’Angelo. Is “ Awaken, My Love!” just a fantastic conceit? There’s some evidence of that: The themes of “Baby Boy,” which slinks along like an outtake from Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Going On, and the Eddie Hazel-like scratch-guitar instrumental “The Night Me and Your Mama Met,” sound as if they could be coming from the mind of Earn Marks, the Princeton dropout, babydaddy and would-be rap manager at the center of Atlanta. ![]() When he serenades a girl moving to the Golden State over the kitschy calypso beat of “California,” it adds well-timed comic levity to his heavy soul odyssey. The wah-wah guitars and rolling percussion of “Riot” crackle with psychedelic energy. ![]() On “Have Some Love,” he swings with a leisurely gait akin to Funkadelic’s “Can You Get To That” as he implores us, “Have some time for one another/Really love one another.” He subtly underlines his excursions with a message: “Stay woke … now don’t you close your eyes,” he cries in a high, Prince-like falsetto on “Redbone,” a spacy boogie exploration that thumps with thick lowrider bass. Whether it’s rocking his best George Clinton impression over the platform boot stomp of “Boogieman,” or delivering a deep-hued spoken word manifesto on “Baby Boy,” Childish Gambino fully inhabits his funkadelic guise.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |