childish gambino

Ok.

As with many of my music posts … this one ain’t gonna be for everyone. The video is “parental advisory” labeled and it is rap/hip hop.

Anyway. Childish Gambino. I don’t get the name (he is a hip hop rapper). Especially since his real name is Donald McKinley Glover <he is also an actor, writer, comedian>.  The truth about the name? Childish Gambino got his stage name from an online “Wu-Tang Clan name generator”  (whatever that is) and when he saw it he said it just felt right.

Regardless.

What caught my ears & eyes.

His video for Heartbeat.

Hard core lyrics tied to a relatable story all within a brilliant video execution. The video is rampant with symbolism. Driver in front seat and passenger in the back. They shift places midway in the video (symbolizing the shift in control). The sharing back & forth all tied together by some pretty hard core words also switching back & forth between some fairly harsh thoughts with some fairly strong caring thoughts.

I loved this video. I wish more artists put this much thought into their videos. You have to imagine they put a lot of thought into the lyrics so that they should insure the words come to life in an artistic way (artistic without diminishing the lyric message).

Anyway. I read this somewhere – do yourself a favor and open up Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary in separate tabs. Childish Gambino’s lyrics are so dense with analogies and comedic references that you’ll need those reference guides to decode some of his verses.

Yup. They were right.

His lyrics focus on the same topics any young man who writes will write about … but he kind of wears his thoughts on his sleeve as he sings.  It has a sense of youthful pragmatic honesty that is really nice.  Here is Heartbeat. Some lyrics are NSFW.

Heartbeat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFVxGRekRSg&ob=av2n

The girl in the video?

Her name is Adesuwa Aighewi. An exotic mix of Nigerian, Chinese and Thai descent, she’s been in the modeling industry since 2008 and done campaigns for brands like Target and Guess. She was also Childish’s date to a recent awards show so maybe that kiss was really a kiss.

Interesting to me (living in Atlanta)?
Gambino/Glover attended Rockbridge Elementary School <right down the street from where I live now> and DeKalb School of the Arts <not too far away> and grew up in Stone Mountain <where my mother lives>.

And, no, I will not be playing this video for my mother and ask her if she has seen Childish hanging out at Stone Mountain.

Enjoy.

Written by Bruce