In Review:

Childish Gambino

because the internet

Producer, actor, writer, comedian: call Donald Glover, otherwise known by his musician alias Childish Gambino, what you'd like but he would prefer one of those titles isn't "rapper". Former actor and fan-favorite on NBC sitcom Community has endured a jilting year with the pressures of leaving the show to the creation of his sophomore studio album and a Twitter/Instagram post that left all witnessing worrying for Glover's sanity.

(photo: Childsish Instagram)

In a talk with Billboard.com on December 3rd, he spoke about the honesty of his new album and the controversy he sparked with his handwritten notes expressing his fears of the future and letting the fans of Community down. "People think I'm depressed, but I'm just being real with myself and with everybody," said Gambino. Then when because the internet finally dropped audiences experienced the sheer honesty that Gambino yearned for us to understand all year and for his entire career--like woes about tainted relationships, ruined by fame and insecurities strewn across "The Worst Guys (ft. Chance the Rapper)". Then there's the persistence of drug use as stress-suppressors peppered throughout the album and the constant looming of disappointment from peers and loved ones softly sung in "Zealots of Stockhom (free information)" before the track is vamped and pulsed by the loud bangs and clicks of screwed inaudible chants.

Gambino amps up the tracks with saxophone riffs amidst low, rumbling bass looped within battle cries of WoldStarHipHop videos in high-intensity track "Worldstar". Themes of anger and rushed, temporary fame fore-fronted by the high demand of instant gratification via the internet is the rooted foundation for because the internet. If you live under a rock and are numb to all references pop culture than this album is not for you. Clips of Little Mermaid's Ariel ("Daddy, I love him!") and the repetitive cycling of WorldStarHipHop allusions, to hashtags and internet slang are hidden throughout every track trolling it's internet-friendly listeners into a world where they can fully comprehend the struggle and cries Gambino pumps out.

Separated into "acts" each section is headed off with either a short abstract instrumental or a skit of Gambino singing what is to come of its following pieces. These pieces are the backdrop for the 75-page screenplay Gambino wrote in conjunction with the album.  Like the screenplay and the short film, which is the prelude to the album, the LP features up-and-coming hip-hop artists Chance the Rapper and Azealia Banks and R&B singers Jhene Aiko and Lloyd.

As of this week, because the internet fell to #9 on the iTunes charts. During the album's debut it peaked at #7, finally surpassing Lorde's "Pure Heroin" and Imagine Dragon's "Night Visions". Something for Gambino to be proud of because Camp obtained a place at #11 on the Billboard charts during the week of its release in 2011.

Even through some of the comedy of the lyrical genius' rhymes, we can visualize an opaque layer of sheer anxiety and frustration with career choices, relationships, and life as a whole strewn across because the internet. For those who loved Gambino's debut album Camp, you won't be sorely disappointed with the same brutal honesty and wit Childish Gambino is trademarked for. Earlier this year we feared for Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, but the struggle definitely benefited his art as he received high reviews and topped the charts. "Give a fuck or give a hell," Gambino raps in "Life: The Biggest Troll" (Andrew Auernheimer)" and he's definitely not afraid to do both. Gambino takes what he burdens with in because the internet and makes those worries physical and relatable for his audiences. This is as real as it gets and, Donald, we're all in this thing you call "life" with you, you're just more honest than most of us are willing to be with ourselves.