5 Current Rappers To Watch (And 5 To Forget)

5. Worthy Of Your Attention: Childish Gambino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExVtrghW5Y4 Donald Glover is many things all at once - actor, screenwriter, stand-up comic, hip hopper... his fingers fiddling in many pies. So, when he slips into his rapper character as Childish Gambino, we're getting just a sliver of the man, right? You would think so, but somehow Glover manages to split himself across his various passions without treating each medium as a passing phase. This is no gimmick rap either. His latest album, Because The Internet, may be deeply impregnated with meme culture and references to the connected world - you wouldn't be far off to call this a concept album - but Gambino handles the subject matter with wry irony. For an accomplished stand-up and sketch comedian it's to be expected that there would be humour injected into his rhymes, but it never comes across as a joke rap. If there's a meta-joke, it's an insightful poke at modern youth and our internet culture obsession. A look back at Childish Gambino's early work shows a heavy reliance on wedging in some comedy wherever possible, but these days we're dealing with a more confident, progressive rapper - lyrically he's sharp as a knife, and has a refreshing, enlightened approach to the game. Never afraid to push things forward musically, his recent work is a relentless and complex tapestry that asks questions that the listener may not be ready to answer.