Childish Gambino

Because the Internet

It’s all very ambitious, but experiencing Because the Internet as the artist intended requires an hour of fully plugged in attentive reading, embedded Youtube clip viewing, and listening. On its own, Because the Internet’s album component breaks a number of Childish Gambino’s poor rap habits. 

Where his debut was crude, cartoonish and silly, this effort is faux-reflective, misguided and ultimately collapses under the weight of a concept that’s almost impossible to make sense of. 

While Because The Internet is much more likable and ambitious than Childish Gambino's last commercial effort, Camp, this album is not without its hangups.

This reveal, that everything has been in character, doesn’t make the immaturity of the music acceptable. It’s the artistic equivalent of throwing up a brick from the three-point line and goofily claiming, “I meant to miss.”

It sounds like nothing more than a talented guy reciting erratic ideas and fragments of phrases scrawled on unconnected Post-it notes, over production cooked up by himself and cohort Ludwig Goransson with the apparent intention of combining every genre of music ever made available on a torrent site — often in the same song.