[Reaper16]

45.) Childish Gambino - Camp

You all know the story: comedian Donald Glover proves that he can bite Weezy and Yeezy’s flows while adding his own numerous punchlines and falsetto hooks. You also may have seen the backlash to this album in publications like Pitchfork (which gave it a 1.6, mostly because it finds fault with Gambino’s stance as a kid who doesn’t fit in and has the audacity to make music about his insecurities. In a year in which Drake received tons of commercial and critical success for his “confessional rap,” Childish Gambino should receive similar praise. While Drake’s musical personal has always seemed like a put-on to me, Gambino feels very true. It’s the nature of his flaws – deep racial insecurities & a sexualization/objectification of women that stems from adolescent rejection – that makes him compelling. He isn’t glorifying these things so much as he’s working through them. Which makes this album a valuable piece of art. Anyway, the hooks on this album border on saccharine; there’s a definite cheese factor to much of Gambino’s treatment of things. But sometimes it all works in his favor, such as in the closing song of the album – a moving dramatic monologue of a bus ride home from summer camp one night. Other tracks are filled with the most audacious and clever hashtag rap punchlines and some very solid technical abilities on display. More than anything, while Camp isn’t a great album, it’s a super fun album to listen to.