The word “Originality” is used too liberally in today’s society to describe the music industry and its various products. With every musical act that slightly differentiates itself from another group comes some amateur with an opinion and open canvas declaring the piece of work “truly original.” The fact of the matter is, true musically original work is hard to come by as of late. Turn on any Top 40 radio station, and soon the tunes become homogenous and hard to distinguish between. I fear the concept of originality will soon be extinct in the music world, much like the dodo bird.
Enter Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino): Musician, Comedian, Actor, and Writer. The torch-bearing rap artist whose latest album “Because the Internet” is further proving his status as an original. Glover did not just produce an album; he created a world, through every type of art outlet possible. The idea first starts from the end of his first album Camp, where a character simply referred to as “the boy” goes through the pre-adolescent struggles of identity and love at a summer camp. Because the Internet revolves around the same boy ten years later, as he further struggles with a lack of self-worth, monotonous repetition, being used for his affluence, and his inability to connect with anyone. All of which is because of the internet (See what he did there?) and its strangely addictive nature.
The album is actually the soundtrack that accompanies the screenplay he wrote about the same character. Here, we can give context to certain songs in the album and further observe the boy’s transformation and eventual downfall. The script is accessible for free at the website becausetheinter.net.
It doesn’t stop there. Months before the release of the album and screenplay combo, he released and starred in a short film on YouTube “Clapping for the Wrong Reasons,” acting as a prequel to the album to give insight into “the boy’s” life.
Finally, he teamed up with NYC record store chain “Rough Trade,” and personally created an exhibit in each store that demonstrated what the characters room looked like. Customers could actually walk inside the bedroom and observe the world which Gambino has created.
He has created and excelled in all forms of art: Music. Literature. Film. Physical art. This is what originality is. This is the type of work that should be receiving the critics praise. He has sacrificed the ability of singles to be able to string together one coherent concept album made to be listened to in its entirety.
Although I am, in fact, praising Gambino’s cutting edge work, this is more of a knock against the rest of the industry. I am sure that there are artists breaking the lines of typical modern day rap, but they are practically unheard of by the average music listener…and that’s the problem. As singles continue to be produced for pure radio airplay and profit, it truly hurts the efforts of artists like Gambino, trying to change the rap game, and sadly, their works fly under the radar unnoticed.
If you’re listening to “Timber” for the 50th time in a week, why not change it up and discover the undiscovered music the world has to offer?