walking upstream…
Childish Gambino
photo: emma · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Childish Gambino
Childish Gambino is the music project of Donald Glover, the multi-hyphenate writer, actor, and director behind the sitcom Community and the series Atlanta, who took his stage name from an online Wu-Tang Clan name generator. He began in the late 2000s with wordy, hyper-referential rap mixtapes and the albums Camp (2011) and Because the Internet (2013), then pivoted hard into vintage funk and psychedelic soul on Awaken, My Love! (2016), home to the falsetto slow-burn Redbone. The 2018 single This Is America, with its whiplash gospel-to-trap arrangement and viral one-take video, cemented him as one of the era's most restless genre-crossing figures.
the sound in question
2018
This Is AmericaChildish Gambino
walk the tributaries ↓
George Clinton1970s · Funk / Psychedelic soul / R&B
Awaken, My Love! is openly modeled on George Clinton's early-1970s Funkadelic, all gritty guitars and unbridled psychedelic funk rather than the party-horn Parliament era; Glover has described the formative jolt of 'hearing a Funkadelic scream and being like, that's sexual and it's scary,' and Clinton himself gave the album his blessing, calling it a cross of P-Funk and Prince. The opener Me and Your Mama is the most direct homage, chasing the same guitar-freakout catharsis.
listen: upstream & heresource: HipHopDX ↗
1971
Maggot BrainGeorge Clinton
2016
Me and Your MamaChildish Gambino
listen forPut on Funkadelic's Maggot Brain and let its long, weeping guitar solo build, then drop into the second half of Me and Your Mama, where the hushed intro erupts into a screaming, fuzzed-out guitar-and-vocal climax cut from the exact same psychedelic-funk cloth.
Kanye West2000s · Hip-hop / Conscious hip-hop
Glover has said he doesn't think he could have been accepted in hip-hop without Kanye West, who made it acceptable to rap as yourself instead of conforming to genre cliches. That permission shows up in the confessional, sung-and-rapped vulnerability and lush production of his Because the Internet material, where 3005 pairs emotional openness with a melodic, melancholy hook.
listen: upstream & here
2008
HeartlessKanye West
2013
3005Childish Gambino
listen forPlay Kanye's Heartless from the Auto-Tuned, heartbroken 808s & Heartbreak, then 3005: both drop a rapper's guard for a plainly sung, lonely refrain floating over glossy synths, letting the melody carry the ache instead of a hard-nosed verse.
Prince1980s · Funk / Pop / R&B / Rock
Critics and George Clinton alike heard Prince in Awaken, My Love!'s blend of funk and falsetto intimacy; Clinton summed the record up as a cross between P-Funk and Prince. Redbone leans on the kind of high, vulnerable falsetto and slinky, bass-forward slow-jam groove that Prince made a signature.
listen: upstream & here
1987
AdorePrince
2016
RedboneChildish Gambino
listen forCue up Prince's Adore and sit with that aching, feather-light falsetto over a low-slung groove, then switch to Redbone: the same pitched-up, tender vocal riding a fat, unhurried bassline, feeling wounded and seductive at once.