Calling his older stuff “absurdly bad” is... well... absurd. They’re hardly classics, but they’re a hell of a lot of fun. Dude just seems like a guy doing whatever he wants to do with the talents he’s worked hard at. Fair play to him.
Asking "When did Donald Glover get so popular?" this late in the game is certainly an interesting one to throw out there.
Camp may be outdated/corny but I still have an absolute soft spot for it because I distinctly remember my anticipation for it leading up to the release. I'd been a fan of Donald since Derrick Comedy basically and once I discovered the EP with Freaks & Geeks existed, along with Community, I knew the dude was something special. I will always love Camp and have a huge amount of nostalgia for it even though I can understand why people wouldn't like it. Because the Internet on the other hand is one of my favorite albums of all time, like probably in the top 5, and the notion that it is absurdly bad is an absurdly bad opinion
I do apologize for the condescension, but maybe a Childish Gambino thread isn't the place to question Childish Gambino's appeal and popularity...
A better take would be that it's pretty amazing that a dude whose first brush with fame was in a video called "Bro Rape" has ascended and evolved to the point where he's starring one of the biggest movies of the summer.
A lot of his rap lyrics come off as trying a little too hard to be clever and a little corny as a consequence of that. Though I have come to really enjoy Because The Internet though, despite its flaws. Maybe I need to give Camp another shot. Awaken, My Love is a freaking masterpiece.
His mixtapes are my favorite, for sure. Wish he’d release them to streaming someday. I also don’t think “corniness” is a fair description. They are pop-rap albums with lyrics heavily revolving around punchlines and braggadocio- pretty standard for the genre he was pushing for back then. His lyrics now are obviously more mature, but there was undoubtedly a fearless and fun quality to the older shit.
I think I’d go... BTI>Camp/EP>Royalty>STN MNTN/Kauai>Awaken>Culdesac>the early stuff But I love pretty much all of that besides his pre-Culdesac stuff (and even the I Am Just a Rapper tapes have some good stuff on them). More people really need to listen to Royalty, it’s like an exact mix of the early Camp sound and the BTI sound and it has an amazing feature list. If I recall correctly it was the first time I ever heard Danny Brown, Chance, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Nipsey Hussle and Kilo Kish actually
I am almost exactly the same as you except for Royalty. Actually, I think I would put Kauai right after BTI and keep STN MTNT where it is. Anyway, pretty close to ya haha
Why would you listen to D'Angelo when you could listen to the far superior Curtis Mayfield? Why listen to any rap album when Illmatic exists? I could go on, but i'm sure you get my point. People listen to who they like. Maybe some people don't like D'Angelo's/*insert other neo soul singers name here* voice and prefers CG's. Maybe people think he does what the people you claim he's ripping off does better than them. Opinions and arseholes etc. For me, he seems like one of the few artists out there doing exactly what he wants to do, whether it be rapping or singing or acting, and seems to love doing it. That makes a difference to people. When someone loves what they do, it shines through.
At the moment, sure. He's only made one album that you could compare to them, so there's no real point in making the comparison at this time. But if his output continues in the same vein and quality of AML, then he can definitely be included in the conversation IMO. Just because you don't get it's appeal doesn't mean you need to shit over it either. It's his first album in this genre, not everyone hits it put the park on their first attempt at something new. He came pretty close, though. A lot of people tend to agree too, so maybe your in the minority? Not saying your opinion is wrong or that the critics are always right, but sometime you need to accept that when your opinion may not tally up with the general consensus, going on a thread and shitting on something can be seen as a bit of a dick move. What it can do it introduce people to artists they may not have been familiar with before.
If you want to be petty, that's fine. I'm not sure how you've taken my post so personally, but if you wanna question my opinion on another thread, you go for it. Just like you, I've got my fair share of shitty opinions!
Never said no criticism was allowed. I'm cool with critiquing music. I'm just saying asking a question about why one of the most famous people on Earth right now is popular and then saying he shouldn't be popular because music he made ten years ago is "bad" in a thread dedicated to said person is... well, it's not a great thing to spend your time doing.