The initial shock of Childish Gambino’s new music is now over and it’s time to just simply enjoy the reality. Though the artist spent most of his career rapping and diving into R&B, the tracks that he’s debuted off his upcoming record, Awaken, My Love!, has flipped expectations on their head; it isn’t rap – it’s barely even hip-hop.
Gambino, a.k.a. Donald Glover, a.k.a. future Star Wars star, released his Funkadelic-inspired single, “Me and Your Mama,” the other week, and it was far and away the most interesting and expansive thing he’s ever done. Today, we get what acts as the lead single from the record, “Redbone,” and it does an excellent job showing off his vision just a bit more.
With a runtime of nearly five and a half minutes, “Redbone” shakes things up by offering vocals that most wouldn’t have even guessed that Gambino was capable of. Heavy and soulful, the track oozes with confidence – bass is the driving force until the outro of the song shapeshifts things once again, and when the song is finished, you realize Gambino is now two-for-two when it comes to songs off this new record.
Awaken, My Love! is only two weeks away, and it’s hard to imagine what else Childish Gambino has up his sleeve through the additional nine songs on it. As far as other track lengths go, two are even longer than “Redbone” – they clock in at over six minutes. If Awaken, My Love! is filled with similar quality that we’ve seen so far, we’ll be in for a real treat once the album releases on December 2nd.
