Bad Suns-Salt

Newcomers Bad Suns release their second single from their upcoming EP

Lorde-No Better

The 17 year old New Zealand singer/songwriter releases a new single only 2 months after her debut album.

Childish Gambino-because the internet. Review

   
     The first time I saw Donald Glover was in 2006 as part of the comedy group Derrick Comedy from Collegehumor. I would watch their videos religiously and loved every one of them. Needless to say, when I saw that Glover was on a new show called Community on NBC, I knew I had to watch it. In 2011, my friend played "Heartbeat" and "Bonfire" in the car and told me they were by some guy named Childish Gambino. As soon as I got home, I looked up some of the songs on Youtube and saw that it was none other than Donald Glover. Immediately, I downloaded his debut album Camp. I liked the album, but I never listened to it seriously. It was impossible to take a guy seriously only 5 years after he was raping bros. Also, I couldn't really tell how serious Glover wanted to be with his music, songs like "Bonfire" had hilarious wordplay but also proved he could actually spit. Irregardless, I would always refer to him as Donald Glover and think of him as an actor. It probably wasn't until I he released "Centipede" and announced he was leaving Community, starting a music-based TV Show on FX called Atlanta, and releasing another album. After all that, I started looking back at Gambino interviews and freestyles and began to see him as Childish Gambino, not Donald Glover. Every time he released a new song I realized this wasn't a joke to him, he was a rapper who wanted to be taken seriously and leave the "Bro Rape" chapter of his life behind him. With because the internet, not only can Childish Gambino be taken seriously, he can be considered one of the best rappers musicians in the game at the moment. 

     The album art on iTunes is just a picture of Gambino staring at the camera solemnly, but the real cover is a .gif. It's perfect for this album, it shows "The Boy" (more on that later) starting at the camera, no smile. Solemn and dark, with a trippy vibe. The album opens with the eerie "Library", a five second intro that leads you into the hair-raising "Crawl." In this track, Gambino shows off his impressive rap skills and shows newcomers that he's not the same person he was on Camp. The hook is catchy as well and the production is unique and works great with the aggressive tone of the lyrics. Songs like "Worldstar" go along with the theme of the internet and his obsession of becoming a world star, or getting on worldstarhiphop.com. "The Worst Guys" definitely disappointed me at first because the feature from Chance The Rapper wasn't even a verse, but the Gambino's wordplay and flow is good enough to make this a solid track. However, some of the best tracks on the album have no rap at all. Songs like "Flight of The Navigator" only have 'Bino singing, and it's incredible. Specifically with that track, the combination of the guitar lick and his vocals make it a beautiful piece of the album. The production on because the internet. needs to be mentioned, too. The range in beats is just as dynamic as Childish Gambino himself, going from the hard, almost dubstep, like beat on "No Exit", to the upbeat sounds of "Pink Toes", to the dancy production of "Earth: The Oldest Computer." 

     One thing you may have noticed about the album was the roman numerals next to the songs. Well, back in August Gambino released a short film called "Clapping for the Wrong Reasons." It was pretty mysterious and followed Gambino and some of his friends (Chance, Trinidad James, Flying Lotus) in a huge mansion. The interesting part about this video was that he released it under his Childish Gambino pseudonym, previously only used for his music. But this video didn't seem to have any link to an album or separate project. As it turns out, "Clapping for the Wrong Reasons" was a prequel to because the internet., and not just the album. There's a screenplay that goes along with this album. It's an incredibly well done project that goes along with the album, and I recommend reading the entire thing. It's obvious he put so much thought and effort into combining the mood and story of the play through his music.
     The reason I love this album is because it's so obvious it's not just another album. It's a project that changes everyone's view of who Donald Glover really is, a truly gifted artist. He's skilled in so many different ways and it shows in this project. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who released Camp two years ago.

Big Data-Dangerous

The lead single off the New York pop duo's debut EP 1.0, "Dangerous"brilliantly combines synthesizers with some great instrumental work.

YC The CYNIC-GNK

Talented Bronx emcee YC The CYNIC released his album earlier this year and it went a little under the radar. His sharp lyricism and the great production on the album (courtesy of Frank Drake) definitely make it worth a listen.

Justin Bieber-Confident (ft. Chance The Rapper)

I Definitely never thought I would be posting about Justin Bieber, and there is only possibility in which I would, and now that is a reality. It seems Chance The Rapper has decided to do a guest verse on a Justin Bieber song, and there's a rumor that there may be another collab on the way. A lot of people said that Chance is selling out, but that's bullshit. He's still an independent artist and doing a feature with Justin Bieber is a great way to get publicity. In fact, as I'm posting this, the midnight the song was released, Chance is now featured in the #6 song in the iTunes Top Singles Chart. Not bad for a guy who only has two mixtapes under his belt. And as much as I hate to admit it, Bieber has recently been releasing some quality music, veering away from his old pop sound to a more R&B vibe. Add that to the fact that Chance murders his verse and I definitely fuck with "Confident."

Noname Gypsy-Samaritan ft. Mick Jenkins

The Chicago native drops another chill track with Mike Jenkins