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Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, is an artist from Georgia. He started his career by writing for 30 Rock and acting in Community. His first album received bad reviews, but he gained recognition with the songs Les, Bonfire, and Heartbeat. His album Because the Internet, released in 2013, was well-received and even got a Grammy nomination. Glover released a 72-page screenplay to go along with the album. The album shows his growth and development as an artist, with improved flow and coordination with the beat. He also sings more in this album, showcasing his strengths. The album explores the theme of unity and criticizes the effect of the internet on society. The song "The Navigator" focuses on the interconnectedness of all things. The pitch and musicality of the song add to its impact. Hi, I'm Riley Mitchell, a junior at Beaver Country Day. Today's episode will be on Childish Gambino's album, Because the Internet. Childish Gambino, whose real name is Donald Glover, is a Georgia native artist. He grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia with his mother, father, and two siblings, as well as other foster siblings throughout his childhood. He attended NYU's Tisch School of Arts and began his career in entertainment by writing for 30 Rock, an American sitcom that aired in 2006 at age 23. And then he began acting on Community as Troy, another sitcom which aired in 2009. He did stand-up comedy as well, all of which helped him build his platform. He released his first album in 2005, yet his career really took off with his release of EP Camp in 2011. That being said, Camp received terrible reviews, a 1.6 out of 10 on Pitchfork, and Glover admits that it wasn't his best work. He also says that the criticism has actually helped him and pushed him for his further work, as he stated in an interview with Vice. However, the songs Les, Bonfire, and Heartbeat were received very well and helped him grow his name in the music industry. The album, Because the Internet, was released in 2013, containing 19 songs. It ended up receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album. His album, Because the Internet, is much more than your typical rap album. He released a 72-page-long screenplay to go along with the album, as he clearly wanted the audience to grasp his message. In the screenplay, he writes in short phrases and uses Internet lingo, emojis, and abbreviations. For example, this line states, quote, the boy makes a what emoji face, end quote. Before the release of the album, Glover posted pictures of handwritten letters on Instagram, which were about his frustration with the media, undeniably alluding to the title of his new album. Because the Internet was received much more positively than his previous album, Camp. It has been said to have the smoothness of Frank Ocean's Channel Orange in reviews, and if you're unfamiliar, Channel Orange has been one of the most highly rated and praised albums of the decade. Glover's flow has greatly improved as well as his coordination with the beat. This shows his growth and development as an artist. He also sings much more in this new album, arguably one of his strongest suits when it comes to music. It is suspected that he could have drawn inspiration from Frank Ocean's verse on Earl Sweatshirt's Sunday. He may have used this song as a starting point, then expanded on it. Glover has begun to understand what his strong, for example, singing, and weak, for example, overstepping boundaries on triggering topics for his audience, are, and this has helped him grow as an artist. He has also started to go beyond the expected and push those boundaries. More specifically, gone beyond what many people see his main career as, comedy. 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the world of comedy, and he's been known for his success in the world of comedy, and he's been known for his success in the world of comedy, In this song, the boy is learning how the universe is all connected. He is learning post-suicide attempt that everyone is connected and has pieces of the universe in them. He switches to the pronoun we in the song when he discovers this sense of unity. To bring this back to the title of the album, this sense of unity that the boy dreams of is something that has been taken away from society by the Internet. The Internet has fostered a culture in which everyone has their own little life, their own bubble that they constantly have with them. It has caused us to lose sight of unity as a society, whether that be literally speaking, such as people no longer physically hanging out with others, or emotionally speaking, such as lacking a deep connection because of the superficial focus on the Internet. Glover wants the Navigator to be someone who listeners can relate to or see as themselves no matter who they are. This experience is breaking down the feeling of loneliness that the boy was feeling when he tried to kill himself. He felt alone, but now began to understand that everything is connected. This shocks the boy, both because he thought the whole idea of everyone being connected is very beautiful, but also being upset with himself that he did not think about that fact early. His lyrics are not only criticizing himself, but society as well. Now, to move into the musicality of the song, I'm first going to talk about the pitch. The song goes from a high pitch to a low, almost talking-like tone when he says cold water at the end, in order to give that shock of change that the cold water is symbolizing. The high is to symbolize the feeling of literally being high and partying. Goranson, the producer, pitched down Gambino about seven steps for the first part. They put in a 70s movie soundtrack in the back, and then Glover sang over all of the melodies for the first part into his iPhone. A new layer comes in at 3.30, strings and him humming, and a kick drum. When recording, they thought this part kind of sounded like hummingbirds, which alludes to the concept of flying. The whistle solo at the end of the song is also Glover, meaning they used a lot of his actual voice for these effects that may sound non-human. The choice of cutting the song off with cold water is a significant choice that continues to play into that theme of waking up slash a wake-up call that cold water being poured on someone is. The last five songs on the album particularly allude to the theme of chaos and control, as all five songs do not contain a hook. Because The Internet is a concept album, like Blonde by Frank Ocean, meaning the songs are meant to go together and enhance each other, the overarching message of this concept album is one of self-reflection. It is meant to provoke thought within a listener. The stories being told throughout the album are supposed to resonate with the listener and give them a chance to see themselves within music and take that vision to reflect. As mentioned through the lyrical analysis, the themes that could be drawn from the album are almost endless. But as for musicality, the most important note is that the album is one large story and is produced, written, ordered, and played in that way on purpose. This song speaks about society as a whole and the way everyone has a need to compete, to bring each other down in order to achieve success, because that is the way we have been born to think. For example, the quote, we speak in tradition, as I mentioned. We close our eyes and turn our backs to injustice in order to live in peace. To speak on the Internet, Glover is explaining how we have the excess materials and ways to help people out of our unjust world, but we live in a way that we choose not to, being selfish. He states, quote, growing reservoirs of technology, innumerable powers and advances, and yet we fail to help everyone. We're not using our tools, right? End quote. Glover is urging everyone to wake up from this world that we all live in now, the Internet, and become free. We lose sight of what is really happening when we are caught up in the Internet all the time. Childish Gambino's album, Because the Internet, is a highly complex album. This is evident that it's not only complex for a listener, but for Gambino himself. We can see this through the multiple elements released alongside the album and the overarching story told throughout this concept album. In my podcast, I focused on Flight of the Navigator, a song telling the story of the boy having a dream. The song is, in fact, dreamy, melodious, rich, and overall a little story within itself. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you.
