Sure, it’s a grand artifice for us to swallow, but there’s such conviction and tenacity that the farce goes down smooth. He’s pleading and belting at the top of his lungs, taking this nostalgic Delorean past 88 mph back to the ‘60s and ‘70s of Glover’s father’s record crates. Without warning, however, the trunk-rattling beat gives way to electric guitar, and the shrieking lightning bolt of Glover’s voice erupts. It’s less a song than a bombastic statement of intent, unfurling from a twinkling, bassy intro reminiscent of Atlanta legends Organized Noize. The album opens with “Me and Your Mama,” the LP’s first single. For fans who’ve come to love Glover’s music for his dense rhyming acrobatics and “Family Guy”-esque pop culture references, this might be a disappointment, but, for everyone else, it’s pleasant to find a full length Childish Gambino album with nary a reference to the friend zone or being raped by Aubrey Plaza. In fact, even at their best, most of the lyrics feel like extemporaneous abstractions. Gone are the repetitive drum programming and indie tinged hip hop production, replaced instead by eclectic live instrumentation and a looser, more improvisational approach to funk and psychedelia. His latest release, Awaken My Love, represents a drastic departure from all that’s come before it. Whatever the reason, the ongoing Childish Gambino project has remained a divisive presence in pop music, even as Glover (and collaborator Ludwig Göransson) grew sonically and conceptually. Perhaps it has something to do with the incessantly problematic lyrical content of his rhymes, often centered around fetishizing Asian women and spitting cringe-worthy one liners at his myriad detractors. Maybe it’s because he started out as a nerdcore rapper with a generated Wu-Tang name. This week, he won two Golden Globes for “Atlanta,” the hit comedy series he created, wrote, produced, directed and starred in, but, of his many hyphenates, it’s the musician side that’s always gotten Donald Glover into trouble.
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