First Listen: Our Favorite Songs Off Childish Gambino’s “STN MTN”

Childish Gambino has released his double mixtape/EP STN MTN/Kauai, which simultaneously fulfills his need to finally get Drama to shout over his tracks Gangsta Grillz style (kind of like Animal Style but mixtapes), and save something. Which is the Hipster consciousness incarnate, right? No, seriously, the proceeds from Kauai go to helping to clean up Kauai, mixers (for a new project, we suppose) and other stuff. But the double stack is also the first new, sanctioned piece of music he’s released since his second album and magnum opus Because… The Internet came screaming out of the ether galloping on the back of radio project “3005.” And, again, like Kendrick Lamar’s “i” this one’s gotten a mixed reaction, especially in the office.

Gambino’s been busy, even without music. He’s got a voice role in the upcoming Disney channel series “Ultimate Spider Man” wherein he may have inspired the main character after the Internet’s Donald for Spiderman campaign a few years ago. Oh, and he’s going to be in the remake/sequel to Channing Tatum’s body oil commercial Magic Mike called Magic Mike XXL. But, even so, he still found the time to get this together with a cover by Jaden Smith (as well as a spoken word session by the younger Smith) and a bizarro retro vibe that’s fun if not a bit off-putting. So, of course, we had to weigh in. But this time, we only took one song off the EP to write about. Either it was our favorite and we loved it, or it was our favorite and we hated it, but it was ours. And by “ours,” we mean Andres Tardio, Sr. News Writer, Justin Hunte, our Editor-in-Chief, and myself, Andre Grant.

“Dream / Southern Hospitality / Partna Dem” 

Andres: 14 years ago, Ludacris released “Southern Hospitality” as part of his Back For The First Time album, and the song knocked. Part of its appeal involved Luda’s animated flow, flare and aggression, of course, but that Neptunes-produced banger was hard not to love. 14 years later, on Childish Gambino’s STN MTN, a project inspired and influenced by the emcee’s hometown, Stone Mountain, Georgia, Donald Glover tries to repurpose some of “Southern Hospitality’s” awesomeness. Sadly, Gambino doesn’t succeed.

Instead, Childish Gambino drops less than clever bars throughout the joint. “Watch me cut this bitch off,” he raps on the track. “I’ma need some scissors.” Get it? Scissors cut things. Although this isn’t the worst bar on the mixtape, it is a sign of what’s to come.

The song, “Dream / Southern Hospitality / Partna Dem” is actually broken into three parts, as the title suggests, and each one is a bit more cringe worthy than the last. The cut, which also kicks off the tape, starts off nicely enough with ‘Bino’s dream about running Atlanta and firing cops. Then it fumbles through “Southern Hospitality” and falls flat over the beat used by Rich Kid$ on “My Partna Dem” where Gambino raps about “turnin’ up like that little girl” from Vine. Corny references, similes and metaphors kick this mixtape off and it’s hard not to notice the trend this sets off for the overall project on this first listen.

“Candler Road” 

Andre: I know it’s sort of old, but I like my Gambino rappity-rapping, which is strange because I’m not usually one for that bars on bars on bars lyrical waterfall. But for Childish, I think it focuses him. When he has only one or two things to think about, he centers in on his target and kills. That’s why his freestyles are so stellar, I think. I also like my Gambino at his most Drake. Multiple tracks on the same song aren’t new and it’s been done to great effect recently by the aforementioned Beatles killer — adding variety when the melancholy approaches suffocating proportions. And it works here because those two venn diagrams create a sweet spot wherein he raps unconscious over a dark Tim Suby construction, which makes it okay for him to revert back to his Gambino semi-emo stuff. 

Check out the variety on this one song: “N.B.A/ I’m ballin’ nigga / All ‘em niggas / Fallin’ like Autumn, nigga/ Talkin’ shit, I saw ‘dem niggas / Now they daughter want a picture…” as an ode to both old T.I. and old Jigga, the flow coming down on half notes turning doubles into halves. Then, on the other side of that sunrise the breakdown goes suburban malaise. Slice of life raps like an angry Jerry Seinfeld, “I’m the man for-ever / They can’t let a nigga live, ‘cause the life is better / 85 every day, why I’d bring this sweater? / I fell asleep on the beach, tiny pink umbrella…” That’s Gambino’s superpower. Each bar is a mixed bag. A jumbled, shifting mass of multiple allusions, ideas and sub ideas muddling and clarifying as the song moves forward.

“All Y’all”

Justin: Childish Gambino could be the most peaceful Mad Rapper ever. Rather than spastically spewing “MY SHIT’S MORE JOHN BLAZE THAN THAT!” at Kendrick or ScHoolboy or possibly his closest competitor comparison, Drake, Gambino would plainly sit indian style in a chair and laconically espouse why he’s better than Aubrey. At least that’s what he did three weeks ago during his interview with Peter Rosenberg at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. “I don’t hate Drake at all,” he said in front the packed auditorium. “I really like Drake, if not for no other reason than he makes me better.” It was a genuine moment almost immediately shattered by his awkwardly bombastic confidence. “Right now I’m definitely better than him, only because I’m working harder than him right now. If he came in and was like, ‘Let’s rap,’ I’d be like, ‘Oh I’m gonna kill you!”

Talk about an unexpected juxtaposition. Here’s this arguable cultural outlier who’s too much of an individual to care about the trivialities that litter most of the rap-o-sphere, yet he consistently injects himself into new top tier conversations as if he’s screaming for recognition; as if recognition is suddenly important. Is it necessary? Who cares? The point is that anytime Gambino offers his opinions—like with his “Control”-esque freestyle in Australia, or the time he denied being depressed in the most depressing way possible—it’s almost always at least interesting.

“All Y’all” wins because it jogs along that same parallel. Sure, the beat is swashy at best, but the bars are emblazoned with an MTV’s Diary, “You think you know but you have no idea” kind of aesthetic. “Here’s some shit you didn’t know / Probably wrote your niggas verse / Probably wrote your nigga video,” he raps a few bars before unloading a mildly mind numbing array of assonance. “Royalty equal sign black philosophers / Became a top 5 ‘cause nobody else was stopping us / They want me to Hopsin but I’m poppin and getting confident / God forbid we give him props for the job he did man these nobs be some slobbering / I mean fuck, do you want more?” Yes, Gambino. More of that more often.    

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