Review #12: Childish Gambino - EP (2011)

Childish Gambino  (real name Donald Glover) is the most talented performer I know of. He's a stand up comedian, actor, producer, writer, and ofcourse, a rapper. He's easily my favorite active rapper, and has the potential to be one of the best of all time. I'll be reviewing his newest release, the mixtape R O Y A L T Y after this, part two of two in my EP reviews. This was a really solid lead up to his debut studio album, Camp, and I'd even say that the quality of these tracks are better. Obviously I've already listened to this, but fuck it.

1. Be Alone
Now, as much as I like this EP, this song has one of the gayest starts to a rap song of all time. But whatever, he deffinitely recovers, and delivers two really good verses. Also the beat was awesome and progressed really well through each verse. Also, Gambino has ridiculously good punchlines.

2. Freaks And Geeks
I'm not a giant fan of this beat, but Donald completely tears it apart. Like he goes fucking HAM. This song also helped his fame a ton after appearing in some commercials. Another really awesome track.

3. My Shine
I really like the direction Glover goes with progressing beats so far on here. Also, his flow is perfect on this track, especially just before the first hook. That shit's perfection in rap. Another awesome song.

4. Lights Turned On
A little bit of a step back in comparison with the other tracks, but it still trumps 90% of rap. Gambino's flow on here is great, and it's pretty funny too. Really good track, just not as great as the other three.

5. Not Going Back
Glover's singing on here doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it works. That's how great this shit was. The lyricism is as close to perfect as I've seen in a while, the beat progresses like I talked about earlier, but still sounds fresh, and you can really feel the passion on here. The best track on a really great EP. Best line on the album too "Couldn't see me as Spiderman, But I was spittin venom". Dope.

Best Tracks: All of them.

Rating: 10/10

I've heard this EP like a million times, and it doesn't get old. This is easily my favorite collection of songs of any sort I can think of right off hand. If Glover could have this calibre of music for 20 tracks, he'd be the best rapper of all time.