The versatile performer, who got his start as a writer on 30 Rock, has pretty much been everywhere and doing everything. But lately, we’ve seen a lot less of him as an actor, especially since he announced his departure from the cast of Community last year. This move, which baffled critics and fans alike, was motivated by Glover’s desire to focus more on his music and the development of Childish Gambino, his rapper alter-ego.
Gambino’s first album Camp, released in 2011, isn’t all that impressive. While Gambino’s flow is prodigic and the production is good, Camp’s hooks and themes feel generic and ultimately fall flat. That being said, it generally feels incredibly sincere and personal, and I was excited to see the products of a more focused and less extended Glover.
On the day of the release of his latest album, Because the Internet, Gambino also released a screenplay. This screenplay, which is devoid of meaningful dialogue and full of emojis and common internet slang, is meant to be listened to simultaneously with the album, and details the story of ‘The Boy,’ whose entire life is defined by his involvement with the internet.
Compared to Camp, Because the Internet is a considerable improvement. Just as before, however, the hooks are underwhelming and generic and Gambino’s flow is not good enough to make up for the sometimes cringe-worthy references to internet speak. (Xanax)
It has become pretty common process for artists to use crazy, high-concept projects to generate hype for their new releases. Kanye West promoted Yeezus through cryptic tweets and by projecting a video with the song “New Slaves” in it on buildings across the world. Around the same time, Jay-Z promoted Magna Carta Holy Grail by teaming up with Samsung to produce a series of behind-the-scenes videos that premiered during the NBA Finals. It seems that even the biggest artists of all time feel the need to create a lot of buzz for their albums, to captivate an already over-stimulated consumer.
These efforts are practically moot, nonetheless, if the music they produce just isn’t good. For instance, Magna Carta Holy Grail is largely considered one of Jay-Z’s worst albums, featuring some of his most lackadaisical delivery of some of his most unimportant lyrics. Maybe if he had focused on actually creating some great music, he wouldn’t need to turn to Samsung to sell his records.
This emphasis on hype is my complaint with Childish Gambino. He recently tweeted about his frustration with his record label over their apparent mis-handling of his music video for “Sweatpants,” a track from the album. Gambino clearly has talent, which is evident in many songs on the album as well as some of his live performances. But he became so enamored with creating a concept to surround this new record that the music often feels like an afterthought.
Many things in modern society are too often evaluated by superficial numbers. How many “likes” did you get? How many pageviews did it receive? How many weeks has it been number one on the Billboard 100?
Art cannot truly be quantified in this way. Any one piece of art can elicit and evoke different emotions in different people and is therefore subjected to different critiques and opinions. Problems arise when artists and their record labels try to raise the volume of these critiques and opinions without truly trying to hone their craft.
Granted, it is increasingly necessary for artists to advertise and promote themselves and, sometimes, a way for a musician to do this is by turning their music into an experience. But in order for this to work, not only does said music actually have to be exceptional, but the construction of the experience must be engaging at every turn. This worked for Kanye, whose projections moved thousands of people to random buildings all over the world.
But unfortunately for Gambino, his screenplay, the framework of the experience, is a self-indulgent mess. The story is random and absurd. The whole narrative feels like a failed attempt to create high concept art and adds no helpful context to the album. It simply fails to be interesting.
The results of these shallow attempts to create high art that will be consumed on a massive scale is nothing more than some mediocre music, a confusing screenplay, and a lot of disappointment. It just goes to show that when your goal is to increase views, downloads, or listens, you simply fall flat.
