Camp

At its core, Camp isn't a great album. It's barely even a good album a lot of the time. However, its great songs still hold up, and the production is still really enjoyable if dated at times.

I missed Camp when it first dropped. I was a fan of Childish Gambino but not a "look for his album" fan. I thought Freaks and Geeks (from the EP) and Bonfire were amazing songs, and I still believe that to be the case. I probably took three or four years to actually get around to listening to the full thing. I enjoyed it, but not enough to go back to it. Listening to it again for the first time in years today, its flaws are extremely noticeable. Gambino was a good rapper in his earlier days, but he wasn't a great one. He was articulate and good at telling stories, so in that regard, the rapper he would grow into was always there in some capacity. However, his lyrics did devolve into mediocrity fairly often across the record. Even the best songs have inescapably questionable bars. I love Bonfire, but "I made the beat r****ded, so I'm calling it a slow jam" is one of the worst bars I think I've ever heard a rapper lay down. A lot of the issues with Camp stems from Gambino's own shortcomings as an MC (and the fact that his singing voice was downright bad at this point). It's really impressive that he would grow into what he would grow into in such a short amount of time because this album wouldn't suggest he would ever become one of entertainment's most creative individuals.

As I said before, the production is great. Gambino and longtime collaborator Ludwig Göransson did their thing on that side. Some of it is a bit dated, but that's what you get from most albums released ten or more years so I don't penalize the album for that. "Bonfire" is still one of the hardest songs of the last decade, and "Backpackers" is also still good.

Camp isn't bad. There are bad songs (You See Me is legitimately one of his worst songs ever), but the album is still listenable overall. It's a far cry from Royalty and Because the Internet, and an even further cry from Awaken, My Love, but it's an essential part of understanding the artistic evolution of Childish Gambino.

Favorite tracks: Outside, Bonfire, Backpackers, L.E.S.
Least favorite tracks: You See Me, Heartbeat, Kids