Because the Internet was a far more ambitious project as well. The album follows the story of a character named “The Boy,” whose journey is fully detailed in the screenplay released in conjunction with BTI on Glover’s website. Musically, Glover explored a range of genres, refraining from rapping on many tracks and choosing to sing instead. Promoted with a short film and a series of cryptic social media posts, Because the Internet marked a huge artistic development for Glover. Last year, Childish Gambino released his second album, Because the Internet, to even more critical and commercial success. The album displayed Glover’s prowess as a rapper while also incorporating the humor and the (arguably weak) social criticisms seen in his television and stand-up careers. In 2011, Glover released Camp, his first studio album. Glover began rapping under the name “Childish Gambino” in 2008, and built a sizable following through the release of numerous, unique-sounding mixtapes, which were met with varying responses from critics and fans. Glover’s varied past projects highlight his creativity, defining him, in an appropriately general way, as an artist. Fans of Donald Glover, better known as Childish Gambino, are quick to point to the 31 year-old’s multiple endeavors into almost all areas of entertainment, and rightly so. Glover’s success with television shows such as 30 Rock and Community, his stand-up special Weirdo, and, of course, his music career build an impressive resumé. I wasn’t expecting much from this mixtape, but I know Gambino can do so much better.Rapper. Overall though, this tape is a let down compared to Because the Internet. It’s just a huge step down from his previous album. That’s not even to add the awful features from Kari Faux (“No Small Talk”) and R O Y A L T Y (“A**Shots remix”), one of which being just another female rapper who talks about dirty things (!!!) and the other being a member of Gambino’s posse who sounds like a less weird and therefore less interesting Chance the Rapper.
Most of these beats just don’t interest me at all and you’d think Gambino would have a better ear for production at this point considering Because the Internet. They all hit the same signatures of rap production I dislike, whether it’d be the ladylike voice saying “Ay” or the same tired rhythms seen throughout the hard drives of teenagers learning how to use FL Studio.
However that doesn’t really excuse his corny and surprisingly generic lyrics.Īlong with the generic lyrics, we also have generic Atlanta production, mind a few exceptions (“F**ks Given,” “Candler Road, “U Don’t Have to Call”). Now, if I had to give Gambino credit for this mixtape, he definitely has kept the skill of controlling his voice. Along with his nasally high-pitched voice, his music in general was just very immature up until the release of BTI where we finally saw Gambino come into his own and grow as an artist.
The lyrics were corny and full of awful punchlines that Lil Wayne did better back in 2007. One of the biggest problems on this mixtape was Gambino’s biggest problem up until Because the Internet, his rapping. Now, if he just wanted to rap over Atlanta beats, that’d be fine, but it’s just the fact that he’s trying to pass it off as something more than just rapping over Atlanta beats, it’s insanely pretentious. However, the concept is really just an excuse for Gambino to rap over some Atlanta beats.
We’re going to talk about the first half, STN MTN, first. This mixtape is supposedly a “concept album” with the intro stating that this is all a dream where Gambino runs Atlanta. With STN MTN/ Kauai, how does he follow up such a surprisingly great project? Well… His rapping was improved like toning down his voice a few notches, shucking some of the corn, and getting some really, really great production. With Because the Internet though, he finally stepped up to the plate for me. I thought his rapping had potential, but in my opinion it was wasted on an awful voice and some really corny lyrics. This is unlike a lot of the other writers here, that have been huge Gambino fans since day one. Up until Because the Internet, I was not a huge Gambino fan, to say the least. Over the past few years he’s blown up as an actor for roles like Troy Barnes on Community and as a rapper, dropping some mixtapes including Culdesac (2010) and R O Y A L T Y (2010), an EP entitled EP, and two albums: Camp and Because the Internet. STN MTN/Kauai is the latest release from Atlanta rapper/actor/writer/producer Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover.