So, its official Childish Gambino has dropped his highly anticipated album Because The Internet. As one of the bigger Gambino fans on this site, I know you may be thinking that this review will be totally biased but I have put my intense fandom aside and reviewed this purely from a musical and technical standpoint. Also note that this review is based on the album alone Ill talk about the screenplay briefly at the end. Without further ado, here we go 01 The Library Intro Very short intro thats a bit eerie and interesting 02 I. Crawl Throughout the song, you hear different types of production and sounds that are all over the place. Its actually very reminiscing of how the internet works. The hook is pretty catchy, wont lie, and I just love how its all over the place. 35 03 II. Worldstar Clever concept here that I like. Im definitely feeling what sounded to be a saxophone solo at the end of the song. It ended an interesting end to the song. So far the production is all over the place, but Im enjoying it a ton. 3.755 04 Dial Up Nice interlude before The Worst Guys 05 I. The Worst Guys f. Chance the Rapper Truthfully, the hook is a bit weird but interestingly enough, I loved it. The beat is just absolutely amazing here. Its so catchy and that breakdown at the end was icing on the cake. When I heard that he was collabing with Chance again, I was obviously thinking hed do a verse, and while Im a bit disappointed I didnt hear one from him, this song still goes hard. 4.55 06 II. Shadows A very nice song here with some soul and Gambino doing some amazing singing. Hes really gotten so much better at his singing. The song as a whole was smooth and I like that more raw and louder turn in the beat a little bit before the 300 mark. As funny as it might sound, you can really hear him singing from the soul here. 3.755 07 III. Telegraph Ave. Oakland by Lloyd Ok, I loved the concept at the beginning of the song. Gambino is getting in his car and hes turning on the radio as a Lloyd song comes on and hes kind of singing along with it and you can hear various noise in the background. I just love that part when the hook comes in and he takes over because its like he wants to take over the song as it is happening to him. The beat is just awesome, and again, Gambinos singing is just great. Im vibing to this song. 55 08 IV. Sweatpants I like how hes taking the persona of someone whos rich and flexing throughout the song, something a rich, snooty person just might do. Moreover, this song has some funny lines and its unbelievably catchy. When you hear that beat, gets you hyphy, thats for sure. I also find the title of the song interesting as it references the fact that rich people can wear whatever they want since theyre rich. 45 09 V. 3005 Not only is the beat just banging do you hear that bass? and the hook too catchy, but I really like the sentiment behind it. Everyone is scared of the future, and because of that, were kind of reluctant to let go of the past. Although we have to move on eventually, we never have to go through it alone. Thats the whole point. That despite whats out there in the future, as long as hes with someone, hes not so afraid of 3005. Also, I must concede, that hook does sound like one Drake would do, but hey I aint complaining. 55 10 Playing Around Before the Party Starts 11 I. The Party This was the beat that you could hear Ludwig playing around with in Donalds short film. Its weird, almost even a bit experimental, but Im digging it. I like the flow hes got for his verse and at the end, I feel like by saying get the fuck out of my house, its almost like hes realizing that while hes got all that money and the hot spot for parties, hes not really digging it himself. 4.55 12 II. No Exit A very dark song that seemingly reflects sometimes Donalds dark thoughts. Very appropriate I think especially since its coming right after The Party. Almost sounds like hes tripping on something. Its like a manifestation of his weird thoughts and I also found it interesting how he referred to himself as a recluse 35 13 Death By Numbers Im loving the beat of this interlude. Too bad it couldnt have been longer 14 I. Flight of the Navigator Real beautiful beat here without a doubt. And that introsomething about that grabbed me. I liked it a lot. And apparently, the inspiration of this song had to with a passing of a friend of his. Its like hes just done with the world and wants those closest to him to hold on close in fear of losing them too. 45 15 II. Zealots of Stockholm Free Information Theres so many components to this song that I almost dont know what to think. I will say he brings up some interesting topics like samesex marriage and religion. I also found that line he brought up about the Dennys and the 3D gun printing very interesting as well. If anything, this song made me think. I was more so invested in the idea of whats about to happen next. 3.55 16 III. Urn Gambino be crooning for the ladies. When that whole chorus comes in, it just sounds so beautiful over that nice instrumentation. What a nice track to hear before Pink Toes. 4.55 17 I. Pink Toes f. Jhene Aiko Oh my. Now this is what Im talking about. Gambino and Jhenes chemistry on this song is on point. Did you hear her angelic harmonizing during the interlude? Just gold. The beginning of the song I felt was almost reminiscent of something. Just had that vibe to it. The beat was so soothing too. But yeah, great song and Jhene was amazing here. 55 18 II. Earth The Oldest Computer The Last Night f. Azealia Banks Definitely a more Azealiabased beat I thought, as you can hear with the drums and the beat as a whole. I actually dig it though. Since I could see Azealia rapping on a song like this, it would have been awesome for her to have a verse, but her singing on the hook actually wasnt bad. Its already stuck in my head. 4.55 19 III. Life The Biggest Troll Andrew Auernheimer Oh Gambino, you clever troll. On the version of the song, I was listening to, the song abruptly stopped near the end, and for a sec I got mad because I thought I had a faulty version of the song but then I heard the actual version that finished off the song and I realized that he was trolling us. Should have seen it coming. As far as production goes, I like it. I could hear a bit of synths that sounds pretty cool and there was a part in there where he so obviously was rapping about Jhene. Its interesting to see how much she actually means to him. Also in this song, he spit a line that I thought was very much indicative to the way hes taking his style of music now We were childish but had to grow up When you spittin real shit eventually you grow up. Its interesting because by that period of the song, I noticed that he didnt really spit as many clever punchlines as he was known for in his EPCAMP era. It shows the more mature direction hes trying to head in and hes doing it very well. 45 Now after reading the Because the Internet screenplay, its amazing to realize how this whole album connects together. If you havent read the screenplay, I highly advise you do. I felt like it brought light to many of the ideas and themes that come up throughout the album itself. It also helps answering some questions I had. When you read the screenplay, it just puts everything into context and made the album that much better. Also, Ive heard and thought about some theories floating around about how Gambino is actually living a world album in how hes portraying The Boy from the screenplay which makes sense. The same clothing, the interesting tweets and instagram photos, roscoes wetsuit, even that tweet that contained Melrose sent to Jhene being Naomi in the screenplay. This just proves how much of a creative genius and mastermind Gambino is TOTAL SCORE 9.510 And thats my review. What did you guys think of the albumscreenplay? Im thinking this is AOTY
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