"...every black, "you're not black enough"...

...is a white, "you're all the same"  - Childish Gambino

Okay, so remember that dude you went to school with back in the day that was always around but no one really knew who he was. He was from around the way but no one knew exactly where he lived or anyone he hung out with. You never saw him at the courts playing ball, wasn't into rocking J's, and had a really jagged line-up. Didn't hoop, sling, bang, get at chics or any of the other prerequisites of "Blackness". One of your homeboys remembers having a class with him and clowning him about his dirty Nike Cortez and extra-medium Pantera t-shirt. He had a few other outcast friends but was otherwise completely off the "down" radar. Well, he was listening to hip-hop under those wack-ass headphones you used to smack off of his head. Guess what, he raps now, and he's got major beef with you.

Well, not just you, he also has an axe to grind with the bro-dudes and semi-down wealthy kids from his private school too. Most of his venom, however, is for you. Mainly because he expected more from you, than he did from them.

"Cuz black shit and hood shit is super different..."

Dope, dope line..on so many levels.

Childish Gambino's Camp is should be one of the most important albums in the history of young black culture.

The ideas of what it means to be "authentically" black has become narrower and narrower over the years. Through television, Hollywood, news, and pop culture what it means to be black had been clearly defined - poor, hood, athletic, among other things. Black folks themselves sadly have also played a major role in placing these limitations, and reinforcing these images. My father always had beef with the Cosby Show because it didn't show "real" black people. Of course, in his mind, "real" blacks lived more like we did...living in public housing, drug addicted dad, in and out of jail, bla, bla, bla. On the other hand, he loved "Good Times", for the record. 

Gambino certainly is not the first to dude to rap from the perspective of a black person that did not grow up hood, and/or impoverished (those things can be mutually exclusive you know). He is however one of the first to go into such detail and attempt to flesh out some of the nuance that exists in the discussion,

"I used to dream every night, now i don't dream at all 

hopin' that it's cause i'm livin' everything i want 

used to wake up in a bed between my mom and aunt  

playing with this land before time toy from pizza hut  

my dad works nights putting on a stone face 

he's saving up so we can get our own place 

in the projects, man that sounds fancy to me 

they called me fat nose, my mom say you handsome to me  

Mrs. Glover ma'am, your son is so advanced 
but he's acting up in class and keeps peeing in his pants 
and i just wanna fit in, but nobody was helping me out  

they talking hood shit and i ain't know what that was about  

cause hood shit and black shit is super different  

so i'm talking hood shit and Cool It Now like New Edition  

mom and dad wouldn't listen, they left the Bronx so i wouldn't be that 

all their friends in N.Y. deal crack"

Overall he plays around with race, racism, and identity in a way that I haven't heard from other MC's. Obviously others have raped about the topic but those themes are central for this dude.

"Change my I'd for the cops it's not enough yet

Black male with short shorts, I'm double suspect"

"It's a shame these kids was supposed to save rap

Fuck that boat shoes and a wave cap!"

"Lovin White dudes who call me white then try to hate
When I wasn't white enough to use your pool when I was 8
Stone Mountain, you raised me well
I'm stared at by Confederates but hard as hell
Tight jeans penny loafers, but I still drink a 4 down
Staying on my me shit, but hated on by both sides
I'm just a kid who blowing up with my father's name
And every black "you're not black enough"
Is a white "you're all the same"
Mm Food like Rapp Snitch Knishes
Cuz its Oreos, Twinkies, Coconuts, delicious"

Gotta love the last line above. Black, yellow, and brown on the outside...

From a skill standpoint he also has some promise. He has a decent flow and above average wordplay. He has potential to be a really good MC. I'd like him to see him develop a bit more nuance in his discussing said topics, making use of other, more sophisticated literary techniques. He is can be very direct, if not simple in his delivery of said ideas.

The reason he is so important is because in this climate of "i'm so real" or "hood, etc", it is hard for kids who are real and not hood, or hood and not gang involved, or struggle and not poor, or poor and not slinging, middle class and not without struggle, or poor without struggle, or upper middle class and perfectly well adjusted, or upper middle class with a fucked-up family situation, well, you get the picture. It is already hard enough for these kids to shape their own identities.