Childish Gambino: "Eat Your Vegetables"

I didn't care a whole lot for Donald Glover a.k.a. Childish Gambino's official debut album, Camp... the overly sentimental emo rap seemed too affected, too eager to win over the teenage girls, in a way that his sophomoric-yet-clever-as-hell early mixtapes never stooped to. "Eat Your Vegetables" seems to have the lad back on track, humor and incisive couplets back to the forefront, whining relationship woes pretty much nowhere to be found.

The above image is one of four (only the colors vary) that Gambino cryptically posted to his Tumblr account, along with an announcement of a yet untitled new mixtape. Presumably "Eat Your Vegetables" will be part of that project.
(via Rapdose)

Childish Gambino: "Bonfire"

Now this is more like it.  After hearing several treacly, emo-to-the-nth cuts off Donald Glover's upcoming Camp, I needed something a little feisty and gratuitous to restore my faith, to reassure me that Childish Gambino was not turning into a self-absorbed troll of high school poetry introspection.  And here is that reassurance.

Get More: Childish Gambino, Music, More Music Videos

Childish Gambino: "Be Alone" / "Lights Turned On"

I don't want WKMR to be just another would be "tastemaker" blog - which is probably fortunate since I have like zero readers as of this writing - but instead I'm more interested in engaging in dialogue regarding the direction of pop culture, for better or worse.

Speaking of direction, what's going on with Donald Glover a.k.a. Childish Gambino in 2011?



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Admittedly I've only heard the two part I Am Just a Rapper mixtape, which is a year old now, but these two new tracks (second one below) seem to be taking the uncertain, self deprecating rhymes of last year in an unwelcome new direction.  The couplets are as clever as ever, but the chorus and backing track on both of these tunes come off like a third string parody of Kanye's emo rap.  The generic R&B crooning and even more generic dance beat - sounds like it came off the Rihanna reject pile - are both major turnoffs to these ears.  I'm really hoping this shit isn't representative of CG's upcoming Camp album.  There are enough sell out rappers trying to land a single on the increasingly irrelevant Billboard Top 40 as it is.