"Awaken, My Love!"

Product Information

this summer at 'Pharos', a series of secretive, audio-visual live performances which took place in a custom-designed dome in the middle of the desert in Joshua Tree. You could argue that Childish Gambino became a great hip-hop artist when he stopped rapping, but that would be unfair. Comprised of various labels we know and love at Rough Trade (Bella Union, ATO, Speedy Wunderground, Phantasy, Heavenly, Mute and more) PIAS [Recordings] filter through some of the most diverse artistry to our racks, which we greatly enjoy digging into. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Jalen perform live knows that he is one of the most captivating performers on today's soul scene. As it is not in shrink wrap but instead a resealable sleeve, it may indicate it could be Record Industry that has pressed this release.

They put 25 min of music on one side and it's really audible how quickly the quality degrades because of it (usually the limit for a side is ~23 min due to the physics). Gambino delves into the kind of grungy stanklove that OutKast once indulged in on their magnum opuses.Follow-up 'because the internet' went top 10 on the Billboard chart, was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards and further assimilated Gambino's multiple disciplines (it was accompanied, for instance, by two films and a standalone 72-page screenplay). It was 2011's debut album Camp - his first since signing to Glassnote Records - which marked a breakthrough for Childish Gambino, whose music explores everything from identity, race, and technology to hip-hop culture, class, and family. Originally hailing from Stone Mountain, Georgia - his Mum was a daycare provider and his Dad a postal worker, where TV was banned in the house - Glover first entered the spotlight as a member of sketch-troupe Derrick Comedy, via a stint working on The Daily Show and the invitation to join the '30 Rock' writing staff by Tina Fey before he'd even graduated from NYU.

Main bad thing of note on this press is the extremely low volume - on the first track I had to crank it up to 75% whereas on most records I have, I can turn it up to ~45% to get the same volume. On “Have Some Love,” he swings with a leisurely gait akin to Funkadelic’s “Can You Get To That” as he implores us, “Have some time for one another/Really love one another.WOW this packaging is way overdone, the box is as thick as a 5lp box set, for a VR headset that became obsolete in less than 5 years. With his 2014 EP Kauai, he barely rapped at all, instead offering a short suite of winningly pop meditations on summer romance. Much like André 3000 and Kanye West, Childish Gambino seems to have realized that his music can be just as resonant, if not more so, when he brings a hip-hop sensibility to vocals and melodies, and leaves the bars behind. Some already anticipated his evolution – he debuted the project during his Pharos Festival at Joshua Tree, California last September. He subtly underlines his excursions with a message: “Stay woke … now don’t you close your eyes,” he cries in a high, Prince-like falsetto on “Redbone,” a spacy boogie exploration that thumps with thick lowrider bass.