Childish Gambino - Camp (2011)
It must've been a week before the album came out that I managed to catch the music video for the lyrically-intense "Bonfire" by chance, as its fame was quickly growing on the internet like an actual bonfire, and I'll tell you what: I was fucking blown away from all of the shit that he was saying. "I made this beat and murdered it, Casey Anthony"?! I was a teenager at the time and just said "holy shit" mentally because that was so fucked up to me, but I needed more, and so I waited, and I really enjoyed the album when it dropped, but as years go on, I still think it's a good album for what it is, but it certainly has its flaws that are hard to ignore if you're more than a casual hip-hop fan, but of course, let's start from the beginning, yeah? On this album, Childish Gambino is by far the best at rapping he's been up until this point in his discography, his lyrics are better than before (but still not GREAT), and the instrumentals are generally pretty well-crafted and chill (special shout-out to "Fire Fly" for being especially good!!), hooks range from being great to ain't bad at all, and there's no awkward lyrics about shitting anymore.. At least that I can remember, but hey, that's an improvement from previous tapes, right? Maybe J. Cole could learn something here.
Many people fault this album for being somewhat immature and whiny, and while I can see that, I think they're missing the point: The majority of this album is about emotions and shit that he experienced when he was younger when you can't fuckin' handle the smallest of things without overthinking it, and when you combine that with general insecurity, then yeah, "Camp" is an album that embodies those cringeworthy teenage thoughts that you had, but it helps make this album more genuine for what it is. However, a lyrical crutch that Childish Gambino unfortunately uses a lot on this album are punchlines, and you can say "What?! That's part of his appeal!!" and truth be told, they're not bad punchlines most of the time, but when he inserts them into serious songs like "All the Shine" which is a fucking gorgeous song (especially when followed by the interlude of "Letter Home") with a great string section and some great, fragile singing courtesy of Gambino himself, but when this dude is saying shit like "That's why I come first, like my cellphone" referring to his iPhone, sure, it'll take you a second to catch it, but it'll just lead to you groaning and wishing that he could just be blunt about everything he feels, instead of feeling the need to constantly entertain the audience with clever (and sometimes cringeworthy) punchlines, because here's the thing: I can actually relate to a lot of this album, and it takes me back to certain times in my life as I'm zoning out, but then he says some ridiculous shit like "I ain't Mumford, I ain't tryin' to have sons" and it reminds me that I'm listening to a comedian who recorded a hip-hop album, which sucks because a lot of the songs on the album are serious in nature.
The album is generally pretty good for what it is, but even from the first track, it shows exactly what it could've been with "Outside", a song that you probably CAN'T relate to for the most part because it gets so fucking specific when talking about Gambino's life growing up, from being bullied, his uncle getting into trouble with drug dealers and then the entire family having to hide screwdrivers under their pillows for protection, or even possibly the most specific reference being "I used to dream every night, now I never dream at all. I'm hopin' that it's cause I'm livin' everything I want. I used to wake up in a bed between my mom and aunt, playing with this Land Before Time toy from Pizza Hut" and it's brilliant because he's including the smallest of details into a personal song to REALLY help paint a picture of his life growing up in poverty, having to watch the electricity meter for his mom so they don't get their electricity turned off, and having to take sink baths with his cousin as a child. The point is, he's able to paint such a vivid picture of his childhood, and when you go from this to tracks where he feels the need to break serious tones with punchlines about fucking, cellphones, or whatever else, it's disappointing.
There's a certain charm to this album that's pretty unique: Gambino's a guy that plenty of us can relate to in at least one way, and is generally a lovable guy with how funny and nerdy he is, and for him to describe all of his troubles on this album leading up to the final track "That Power" in which he ends his final verse with "On stage with my family in front of me, I am what I am: Everything I wanna be" there's a certain happiness that kicks up in me, to show that the underdog finally rose above his upbringing and the demons he faced, and then it just leads into this beautiful spoken-word story (written by DC Pierson, sorry to break the news to y'all who thought Gambino wrote it) about being 13 and on a bus back from summer camp and experiencing your first heartbreak, and it's just.. It's amazing. It's amazing because it captures that feeling you experienced when you were 13 and had an innocent crush on someone, only to see nothing ever come of it, or even worse: Being made fun of for it. It captures childhood cruelty and having these feelings you don't understand. It captures innocence.
"Camp" isn't a classic, but I don't think anyone's really arguing that it is, it just serves a very special place in the genre as a more believable and relatable version of Drake that doesn't just revolve around girls not texting you back or whatever. It's a very emotionally-immature album on purpose just to be retrospective, and I don't really get how people can fault it for being that. The fun songs are a good time, and the serious songs are even better, so while this album really ain't -great- or guaranteed to age well, it's still very much worthy of a listen, if anything, to hear about Gambino's life delivered in a much more interesting and in-depth way than you'd be able to read on his Wikipedia page. A pinch of "Why do I like girls now?", two teaspoons of "I gotta act cool in front of my friends AND this girl! I wonder if I can make her laugh, too.." and a big ol' cup of immense insecurity makes "Camp" an album that nearly everyone can find something to relate to inside of it. Who knows, maybe it'll bring you back to being on -your- bus back from summer camp. I know it did for me, and much like Gambino is reluctant to say, I guess a little bit of me is still stuck on that bus, too.
7/10
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