MC Stylists: Finding Yo' Groove

ENC1145, we live in an era where it can take someone .5 seconds  to snap an Instagram selfie, tweet their favorite Kid Cudi lyrics, post a new personal groove to Soundcloud, or update their relationship status on Facebook. Everyone can be a photographer with a smart phone. Everyone can be a professional chef with a Cooking app. Everyone can be instantly intellectualized on anatomy, astronomy, and anthropology with Google at their fingertips. With the advancements in technology, it has become easy to increase your knowledge in any given hobby or activity...and increasingly more difficult to put yourself out into the art community as an original artist. In a world where turntables and orchestral sound effects can all be downloaded via laptop, how is an aspiring hip-hop artist to create their name?

The central focus of this blog post will be on an incredible example of a blooming hip-hop MC (and my personal favorite rapper) Donald Glover, more commonly known by his stage name Childish Gambino. He actually came into the industry as a writer, scribbling scripts for the NBC series 30 Rock. And like another critically acclaimed actor-gone-rapper, Drake, he eventually moved in front of the camera to grab nationwide attention, unveiling his acting talent on his sketch comedy Youtube channel, then moving onto bigger lights such as The Muppets, Community, and The To Do List. In 2008, Gambino released his first independent album, Sick Boi. 2011 brought along his debut studio album, Camp, which received a controversial amount of praise and disgust. Because the Internet, released in December of last year, is what really has really defined the voice of this MC.

Donald Glover is a mere genius in the production of the 57 minute long masterpiece. It isn’t just the mastermind lyrics that draws in and relates to a large audience on the subject of growing up. It was also released with a 75-page screenplay (http://becausetheinter.net/) and short film excerpts to bounce off of the music. The songs are labeled with roman numerals, a beautifully chaotic collision of the tracks, a perfect balance of rap and voice, and another additional commonality his music shares with Drake. Childish explains the album in an interview with MTV:

"Because the internet I'm here, because of the internet we're all here. It's the language of earth. Everyone keeps saying by this or that year, Mandarin or Spanish will be the most dominant language, but the internet is already a language we are all connected to; even my dad can understand the meme format. But the thing is, there are no rules, which is also the awesome thing." 

The general voice of the album is about how we have all this technological chaos at our hands’ grasp, and the cost of how it has shaped our generation, politics, culture, and more-so, Glover. It really taps into his subconsciousness, especially his song “Life: The Biggest Troll”.

“I mean where's the line between Donnie G and Gambino?”

I believe this lyric from “Life: The Biggest Troll” is what really sums up the whole album. Childish Gambino was simply a name he snatched from a Wu-Tang Gang Name Generator he found floating on the internet years ago. Childish is what has made him famous via the internet, while Donald Glover is him as a person. Where does he draw the line? Do his two different personalities he has created drawn the lines themselves? Is there even a line at all? Now ask yourself the same question, about the voice you have created over the internet, and the voice you actually are.

Glover approached the industry from all angles, in all forms of art. He is an artist who has been using all the same tools we have; the only difference is the voice he’s putting into it.