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“Riot” is an amazing follow-up to the thematic idea that black skin is a boogieman that may eventually lead to violence. Like in the song “Boogieman,” black people are perceived as inherently dangerous. Meanwhile, protests by whites are perceived as peaceful and a positive expression of civil liberties. Black Lives Matter marches and rallies are viewed as unpatriotic and a threat to our American democracy. However, the perceptions of white protests versus black protests differ. America watched last year as well-meaning protests of police violence led to social unrest. Now more than ever, frustration over injustice is spilling marches into the street. The one who wields the power of the state acts as the threatened arbiter of (in)justice. Glover confronts the questions of black liberation: “But if he’s scared of me/ How can we be free? Yeah”. For that reason, Childish Gambino’s blackness is a metaphorical boogieman, an American monster that is perceived as a sinister force, a grave threat ready to attack. Why is white innocence and black innocence not valued equally in our American democracy? In “Boogieman,” Glover makes clear that in the mind of some authority figures, black skin makes an African American a perpetrator, a presumed criminal. With the rash killings of unarmed black men by officers sworn to protect and serve, the meaning of innocence weighs heavy on many Americans’ minds. As a result, when Awaken, My Love! incorporates lyrical spin on the productions of Childish Gambino’s African American musical forebears, homage to the collective black liberation movement is paid.Īs I listen to Glover’s words with a resistance writer’s mindset, I hear a man imploring police not to falsely judge him. Parallels between the 1970s and recent social uprisings made Parliament’s Funkadelic album resonate with him: “There’s something about that ’70s black music that felt like they were trying to start a revolution.” The power of music had him seriously considering how society overturns systems. “Boogieman” and “Riot” in particular paint images of black people who, in the eyes of those who wish to dismiss their humanity, are metaphorical monsters.Īs Donald Glover was writing Awaken, My Love!, he had a global revolution on his mind. If you consider poetic tropes and archetypes from African American culture as you think about the intentions behind the album’s verses, you’ll see that the traditions of black liberation and the lyrical protesting of the dehumanization of blackness resonates. Amid his poetic verses are allusions to metaphorical monsters that call to mind police violence, marches, and riots. Lay back as you listen to Awaken, My Love! by Childish Gambino, and thoughts of social turmoil will disturb your rest. The Black Aesthetic is often universally pleasing, but beneath the verses documenting aspiration, empowerment, and fear is a call for cultural revolution. When poetry is set to music, harmonious beats relay liberating feelings that transcend history and culture. Great writers such as Amiri Baraka and Nikki Giovanni wrote of freedom and the rhetoric of the Black Aesthetic.
Still, it’s a minor gripe when there’s so much here to enjoy.In times of social turmoil, African American poets disseminate messages demanding change. Only the limitations of his voice occasionally let him down – he doesn’t quite have the range to nail Awaken’s more ostentatious vocal lines.
Childish gambino awaken my love listen full#
Glover has a keen ear for genre idiosyncrasies and Awaken, My Love is full of tiny rewarding details: the pinched surf guitar of California the squalling organ blasts of the Parliament-Funkadelic-ish Riot. Yet any sense that his latest evolution is merely an affectation is disabused by opener Me and Your Mama, an opus that builds from hushed gospel to howling freakout. In his rap incarnation, Glover was sometimes mocked for being inauthentic – a Hollywood type trying a rap career on for size. For his follow-up, though, Glover decided to run a mile from the genre: instead, Awaken, My Love is a prog-tinged funk opus situated somewhere between Sly and the Family Stone and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Indeed, his previous album under that name, Because the Internet, did just that.
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G iven that he’s the creator/star of a TV comedy – the brilliant Atlanta – that’s embedded in the world of hip-hop, you’d be forgiven for expecting Donald Glover to cover similar territory with his musical alter ego Childish Gambino.
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