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Childish Gambino VibeZ

Twenty tracks from a man who has also written for television, created two acclaimed series, and won an Emmy. Childish Gambino is the side project that became the main event.

Donald Glover, under a name from a Wu-Tang name generator

Donald Glover arrived as a comedy writer — on 30 Rock at twenty-three — then as an actor on Community, and the rap career began as something close to a hobby. The name came from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator, which he has cheerfully admitted.

The early mixtapes were technically able and easy to dismiss. What changed everything was a steady refusal to stay in one register: Because the Internet came with a screenplay, "Awaken, My Love!" abandoned rapping almost entirely for Funkadelic-style psychedelic soul, and by the time of "This Is America" he was operating as a conceptual artist who happened to release singles.

Meanwhile he created Atlanta, one of the best television series of its decade, and won Emmys for it. The music and the television are the same project.

What to listen for

"Redbone" is the one that changed his standing — a slow, paranoid funk record with a pitched-up vocal, built on a Bootsy Collins-adjacent groove, and one of the most distinctive hits of its decade.

"This Is America" is inseparable from its video and won Record and Song of the Year. Whether the song works without the visual is a genuine debate; the video is unquestionably one of the most discussed pieces of pop art in years.

"3005" and "Sober" are from the rapping era and remain his most straightforwardly enjoyable records. "Heartbeat" and "Bonfire" are the early, hungrier material.

"Feels Like Summer" is the loveliest thing he has made — a song about climate collapse that sounds like a warm afternoon.

The Roman-numeraled tracks from Because the Internet — "II. Earth: The Oldest Computer" with Azealia Banks and "III. Life: The Biggest Troll" — show the conceptual ambition.

"MOOD 4 EVA" puts him with Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Oumou Sangaré, and "Bed Peace" with Jhené Aiko is the collaboration people love most.

Go deeper

Because the Internet (2013) and "Awaken, My Love!" (2016) are the two albums, and they could not be more different.

Watch Atlanta, particularly the third and fourth seasons, which abandon conventional structure entirely.

For what "Awaken, My Love!" draws on: Funkadelic's Maggot Brain, Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On, and Bootsy Collins. The debt is enormous and entirely acknowledged.

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