Overview
Childish Gambino is a rapper from Los Angeles, California who achieved fame from stand-up comedy and not surprisingly, he never truly stopped. That's not to say that Childish shouldn't be taken seriously, because from a technical standpoint his flow is fantastic. However, he is so heavily concerned with mocking the logistics of hip hop that many do not consider what he does as truly representing the culture behind it. Childish Gambino's style is highly punk-music mentality driven however, humility on such an abrasive level is very hard to digest over hip hop instrumentals. On a positive note, despite not taking himself very seriously, he has a lot of charisma and is very hard to dislike on a personal basis, "Im not trying to come hard, I'm trying to come me."Defining Track
The track Bonfire is a very full synopsis of the message of Camp. All of the dissociations from his music and standard hip-hop are stated so blatantly that it almost seems like, if anyone were to mistake him for an actual rapper he would be mildly offended.
Final Thoughts
The production is fantastic and as a whole, this release is far more artistic than most hip hop releases. Additionally, there is a personal quality to his presentation that works surprisingly well with its comedy because it is a preemptive disarming of those who would laugh at his emotions. However, Childish Gambino needs to take hip hop more seriously if he ever wants the hip hop game to take him seriously.
