I am very unabashedly in love with Childish Gambino and have been with him since his pre-Camp days. I’ve seen his progression from sad, nerdy, joke rapper to seriously depressed, serious musician, and have loved him the whole way through (okay I was pretty skeptical of Royalty for like four years). Anyway, here is a list of older Childish Gambino songs that don’t get enough attention. Disclaimer: some of these are pretty bad.
Do Ya Like – Culdesac
I honestly have no idea how much people like Culdesac, but I do know that I listened to it on repeat while playing Call of Duty 2 for like a month straight in high school and I think it might be his magnum opus. This was the first song I really liked by Childish, and it’s also mentioned in Freaks and Geeks. It’s got a pretty cool sample of an Adele song from before she was super super famous and she was just regular famous, and really helped cement Glover’s image as “cool rapper who samples indie songs”. That was never really his image but he really thought it was so I’m gonna also pretend it was.
The Real (Infinity Guitars) – I AM JUST A RAPPER 2
I remember being in the car with a friend of mine and she started playing the Sleigh Bell’s song Infinity Guitars and I was really confused because Gambino’s voice wasn’t in it and that’s when I realized Sleigh Bells was a band and that he had just sampled them. This whole mixtape was kind of a transition to more serious rapping, but only barely. The line “I get superhero pussy, she a powerpuff girl” is only one of the few gems of this classic song.
Silk Pillow (Feat. Beck) – Royalty
It really took me a while to appreciate Gambino’s mixtapes and how he was using them to experiment with styles he wasn’t completely comfortable with. I’m still completely unsure as to how I feel about Royalty as a whole, and the Tina Fey verse from the last track is maybe the worst thing I’ve ever heard, but there’s something about Silk Pillow that always gets to me. Maybe it’s the hilarious combination of Beck rapping his usual nonsensical shit and Gambino trying to be more serious. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I find it really hard to dislike bad things from artists I really love.
Not Going Back – EP
This is honestly the best Childish Gambino song ever written and has a perfect combination of witty jokes and super super depressing lines. I am pretty sure I have cried to this song. It has for some reason connected with me on such a deep personal level that I am very confused. I am really building this song up and you will probably be disappointed listening to it but I don’t care, do it anyways, because it is very worth it.
My Hoodie ft. Chaz Kangas – Sick Boi
Sick Boi is honestly such a bad album, and is overall pretty hilarious. But this song. Holy shit. It’s the jokiest of joke songs and it’s pretty baffling that Childish got so famous given he at some point wrote this song. Like I think he is a legitimately good artist now, but this song is just barely even a song. It’s like a Weird Al parody of itself. But it’s also very good, so you should listen to it.