Stray Shots: How Hip Hop’s Myopia Created “Drake vs. Childish Gambino”

Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, HipHopDX used to host blogs. Through Meka, Brillyance, Aliya Ewing and others, readers got unfiltered opinions on the most current topics in and beyond Hip Hop. After a few years, a couple redesigns and the collective vision of three different Editors-In-Chief, blogs are back. Sort of. Since our blog section went the way of two-way pagers and physical mixtapes, Twitter, Instagram and Ustream have further accelerated the pace of current events in Hip Hop. Rappers beef with each other 140 characters at a time, entire mixtapes (and their associated artwork) can be released via Instagram, and sometimes these events require a rapid reaction.

As such, we’re reserving this space for a weekly reaction to Hip Hop’s current events. Or whatever else we deem worthy. And the “we” in question is myself, Omar Burgess and Andre Grant. Collectively we serve as HipHopDX’s Features Staff. Aside from tackling stray topics, we may invite artists and other personalities in Hip Hop to join the conversation. Without further delay, here are this week’s “Stray Shots.”

Childish Gambino Claims He’s “better than Drake”

Omar: Drake is presumably a Hip Hop fan who found success acting and parlayed that success into a Rap career. He mixes heavy doses of singing into his music, and if someone put a gun to his head and made him fill out one of those annoying pre-employment questionnaires, he might mark the “Black/African American” box. And that’s really where the similarities between Childish Gambino and Drake end. But Gambino either made the mistake of mentioning Drake one too many times, or he’s smartly drumming up press for his upcoming mixtape. Either way, the real and perceived overlap between he and Drake has created this false Highlander dichotomy where there can only be one black guy who raps and sings about emotionally-driven shit over sparse production.

“I knew when I was doing Childish Gambino from the beginning, like, ‘They’re not gonna let me do this,” Gambino said during his September 15 appearance at the Grammy museum. “‘They already have a rapper, singer, actor guy who’s black.’ That’s really what it was. ‘If he was white, it would be different.’ They’d be like, ‘They’re not the same.’”

So this isn’t a beef, but more a case of healthy competition and acknowledging the melodic, biracial elephant in room. I think Glover should probably tone down the Drake talk. It’s one thing to acknowledge the elephant in the room, and it’s an entirely different thing to saddle up and ride said elephant like Hannibal charging through the Alps. I would assume interviewers keep asking Gambino about Drake to boost their ratings and pageviews. And it doesn’t hurt that they trade in similarly styled, emotionally vulnerable, hybrids of Rap with a heavy dose of non-traditional influences. They’ve both been called varying degrees of effeminate, and they do the sing-rap thing often but can still bar you down when they catch the urge. But I don’t think any artist wants to be viewed as running on a platform of, “I’m better than so-and-so.” And if the comparisons continue, that will happen and the media will run with it because that’s what we do. Despite decades of implied beef, Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap never did that type of shit. The same applies to Nas and Jay Z. When they’re not making soft shit, I’m actually a fan of both Childish Gambino and Drake. But Gambino is a uniquely talented artist who’s operating in a similar space, and by repeatedly acknowledging the Drake comparisons he’s kind of doing himself a disservice. Few current mainstream emcees have articulated Amerikkka’s difficulties with class and race the way Gambino did on parts of Camp. But as a listener, I’m already tired of writing and talking about Childish Gambino versus Drake. It only exists because of the Internet (pun intended). It’s as pointless as comparing Zima and Smirnoff Ice. I don’t fuck with either of them enough to really care about such a debate. Unless you’re a devoted fan of one of them, you probably feel the same way about a Drake versus Childish Gambino situation. I say DG keeps it moving and end this with a big, 808’s & Heartbreak-inspired Kanye shrug.

Andre: I’m not sure what’s been up with Childish Gambino lately. He’s got the fourth highest selling album in Hip Hop this year in no small part to “3005” blowing up like nitro. It’s a really, really good Pop record, and proves the artist formerly known as Donald Glover can create radio hits as well as spacey, hipsteresque bangers for you and your Rap bros to listen to on the low. He’s also been on a slightly raucous tour where, we assume, picturesque looking intellectuals go to let loose while Because The Internet blares through speakers and everything is over-intellectualized. I live in that exact same world and it sucks most times because, as his frequent collaborator @Famlikefamily told PigeonsAndPlanes.com, “You can’t just do regular bro shit… The downside is you have to factor in that Gambino groupies aren’t typical groupies. They write screenplays, poems, and haikus with detailed sketches and shit. They’re not trying to get smashed, they’re trying to be inspired.”

I swear the Internet has ruined everything for everyone. He’s also been fairly controversial, if making plain statements about abstractions like Twitter activism and Drake can be considered such. For the former he’s said that things like Twitter activism are “half activism.” Which is weird and sort-of true. You get to beef without putting your life on the line. In a lot of ways, Twitter activism is like being a virtual fireman… At least in America. For some parts of the world, it’s Twitter Activism or silence. In the case of the latter—Drake—he’s been saying odd things about authenticity and comparing himself to the former Degrassi teen star. What does he even get out of this? A few things, actually.

The actor-turned-rapper hashtag has haunted Gambino since that Wu generator granted him his artistic license, but it’s his socio-economic status that really bogs him down. Even now I can hear, “He’s not real!” being shouted from the back of the virtual room. But it’s often because we perceive him as wealthy before Rap (and not French Montana’s wealthy before Rap). It sucks because he’s done what he’s supposed to do. Namely, be successful. And he’s being punished for it because he doesn’t make up stories about going to at least nursery school in Bed-Stuy. He shouldn’t have to, but origin stories are important in Hip Hop. We want to see the struggle. These days we at least want to see the emotional struggle. Drake gives us that, along with catch-phrases that will make your friends laugh when you have nothing to say, and ways to talk to women without sounding douchey. He’s a friend. Mostly, they’re apples and oranges, and Gambino has a mixtape coming with cover art done by Jaden Smith. Yeah, that Jaden Smith. So drumming up a little drama is also nice. Let’s just hope the tape lives up to his freestyles because Childish Gambino is a really good rapper and we know it now. Plus, if Drake does clap back, then we’ll have the equivalent of a rap nerf fight, and what’s better than that?

Omar Burgess is a Long Beach, California native who has contributed to various magazines, newspapers and has been an editor at HipHopDX since 2008. Follow him on Twitter@omarburgess.

Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant who’s contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Senior Features Writer for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter@drejones.

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