Every Childish Gambino Single Ranked Worst To Best

I remember the first time I ever heard Redbone and more than anything I recall seeing that it was credited to none other than Childish Gambino to which I raised my eyebrows and tilted my head like a confused puppy. Was Childish Gambino the name of a collective? Was it a guy and a girl? Did someone else steal his stage name? Until I saw his performance on "The Tonight Show". The clip may have been 5 minutes, but I'd say that it took me roughly 20 to retract my jaw.

What is so memorable about this song? Why does it find itself here? Is it because it won Childish Gambino his first ever Grammy, no, but that definitely helps to state a case right off the bat. Maybe its social and culturally maligning status tied with it's multi-platinum plaudits may have something to say about that too.

The real reason why Redbone has managed to shoot itself straight to the number two spot, with little to no resistance, is predominantly based around a few different segments that align to create one powerhouse of a blues ballad. The stylistic nature of the song itself implores a throwback to the days of 70’s soul music, when at the peak of its pinnacle. The sublime vocal range emerging from Glover produces a range of pitches so immaculately intoxicating, especially when paired with such words and phrases that both lyrically and contextually have absolutely no place within the R&B provocation one would tend to find in a plethora of other artists’ work, but yet flowing in such an irrationally unorthodox rhythm, with its dormancy retaining a level of considerably profound metaphors encased beneath an innocently inviting exterior, as the titular Redbone perpetuates an elegy of elegance, resulting in such cryptic lines as “my peanut-butter chocolate cake with Kool-Aid” and “It made me put away my pride” exemplifying Gambino’s ability to hide content packed metaphors in the most minimalistic way perceivable, while still being substantially intelligible with his lyrical content.

Not so fun fact: Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multiracial individual or culture. In Louisiana, it also refers to a specific, geographically and ethnically distinct group.