By Nadir Roberts
Reviews Editor
Donald Glover, or Childish Gambino, re-released his 2011 project entitled “EP” at the start of February. Glover has amassed a huge fan base over the course of putting out three studio albums and a multitude of mixtapes in the past few years.
After leaving the 2018 Grammy Awards with five nominations and one win for Best Traditional R&B Performance for his 2016 hit “Redbone,” the artist is now may be done with releasing material as Childish Gambino, the re-released EP is speculated to be the last work released under that moniker.
The five-track EP brings back a nostalgic era of Glover that many fans love and reminisce about. With the hit song “Freaks and Geeks” finally available for streaming on listening services besides Soundcloud and YouTube, fans are ecstatic.
Many thought that this album was new, but the young and “childish” bars that Glover raps about are pretty immature, but are a nice throwback to his earlier music career.
“Honestly, I’m rapping about everything I go through. Everything I’m saying, I’m super sayin’ like Goku” rapped Glover in “Shine.”
The release of the EP at this time, right after his Grammy performance and win, really allows people to see the evolution of Glover not only as an artist, but as a person as well.
The first song off of the EP, titled “Be Alone,” is able to express the loneliness that Glover felt when he started to gain a following. Although he always had people around him, he was still feeling lonely and unfulfilled.
“It seems the more I try to connect with the world, I am feeling more alone that I ever have felt before,” rapped Glover.
Compared to his other projects, this release was definitely needed and showed a different aspect of him that newer fans wouldn’t have seen before.
Considering his last release, 2016’s “Awaken! My Love,” gravitated musically toward R&B, fans have not had the chance to appreciate new rap music from Glover since he released his mixtape entitled “STN MTN / Kauai” in 2014.
The mixtape included songs like “Pop Thieves (Make it feel good),” “Retro (Rough)” and “Late Night in Kauai.”
Since Donald Glover is supposedly no longer performing as Childish Gambino, no one knows what he else he has in store for music, other than the speculated Chance the Rapper collaboration.
