“i be steady gettin’ paper / call a nigga dunder mifflin…”
this line made me laugh out loud. it was july 2010 and i was checking out a song by donald glover AKA childish gambino. i loved him on community - LOVE HIM - but dude raps, too. hrrmm…we’ll see about that. i went to his website & clicked on a random song, i be on that. laughed at the dunder mifflin line. nodded along.
“listen up please / check my steeze / insect, ligaments / i’m the bee’s knees…”
i clicked on “download album.”
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donald glover was born in california, but was raised in stone mountain, ga. he namechecks rockbridge elementary school in his songs; he attended the dekalb county school of the arts. from what i understand, he was misunderstood, a funny black kid who was into comic books & rock music. he didn’t act or sound black, so others called him names. the girls he was into weren’t checking for him. it was extremely hurtful and it’s a large part of what fuels him today.
that probably presupposes a lot, but i feel like i can do that, because (1) he says as much in his lyrics, and (b) that part of his life hews so closely to that part of my life that it’s spooky. i’m from new york, but i grew up in stone mountain, ga. my elementary school was off rockbridge road; my sister attended the dekalb county school of the arts. etcetera.
donald’s pain is not unique - many people felt marginalized during their teen years. (i dare say, everyone, judging by high school themed movies & the number of live journal accounts.) i’m certainly not going to sit here and say my pain is greater than your pain. but i will say this: being a minority and getting rejected by that minority for not being minority-ish enough hurts a lot - because the rejection can come from classmates & peers and it can come from family members.
sure, it’s unconditional love. but there’s always room for an asterisk.
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donald glover as childish gambino performed in atlanta last night. it started with his stand up (which is pretty good) but mostly concentrated on the music. i was expecting a bumbling sort of affair, but it was a SHOW. a very simple, clean aesthetic (no dancing girls in cages) but still a show. it was sold out & those kids ate it up. i stood back & watched it with my usual bemused detachment, until i realized that i knew pretty much all of the words, something i haven’t done with a hip hop record since i mainlined paul’s boutique my senior year in high school.
ha. you got me, don.
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i know he’s not the best rapper alive. i know that he’s basically using the styles of the day: your kanye west emotional flow, your enunciated lil wayne, your drake hashtag punchlines, your ludacris/busta rhymes sudden bursts of speed. i know he talks a lot about fucking girls. all types of girls. good lord, so many girls.
i’m perfectly okay with that. i don’t ask a lot out of my hip hop, and what i do ask for isn’t the norm. i want it to make me laugh. sure, some rap songs hit me in deeper places or overwhelm me with their jagged beauty, but for the most part i want it to crack me up. it doesn’t have to be an obvious CHUCKLES & YUKS! type of thing (although the lonely island slays me constantly, but i think i’m reacting to their LOVE for the genre). i dunno…it’s hard to explain, yaknowhaimean?
at any rate, childish gambino does it for me. he drops references to the office like litter, then he’ll say:
“whiskey-sippin’, wanna drink the whole bottle / but these smart middle-class black kids need a role model”
…and i clutch my heart in agreement.
he’s not perfect. but he’s really good for me in the right now.
