CHILDISH GAMBINO’S ‘TRUE’ GENIUS IS IN HIS VISUALS

We all know that Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino can do it all. As he stated in his opening SNL monologue, the actor, writer, director, comedian and musician became one of America’s leading “it” men with the ascension of his Emmy-winning television show Atlanta.  However, what has really captivated America and moved Gambino into a new category of genius is his two 2018 visuals. The first “This is America” which was released in May and debuted as the number one record in the country, because of the dialogue created by the compelling video created by Gambino and Japanese-American filmmaker Hiro Murai. “This is America” was Gambino’s first number one single and also his first top ten. The song debuted on SNL, one day before the video was released. The song was well-received on SNL but the video was critically lauded as “genius” and it was the video that generated the conversation, streams and downloads to move it to number one. It debuted with 78,000 downloads sold and 65.3 million US streams in the first week. Its music video accounted for 68% of the song’s streaming total. And that was just the start, think-piece editorials, barbershop conversations and scholarly academic panels dominated the months that followed the release, keeping Gambino’s song on the charts and holding his status as one of media’s leading “it” men.

Gambino has now followed-up “This is America” with “Feels Like Summer” and again, the conversation is about the stellar animated video – directed by Glover, Ivan Dixon and Greg Sharp. The video features Gambino walking through his celebrity laced neighborhood. The animated characters are design by Justin Richburg. You named the music celebrity and more-than=likely they are featured: Yeezy, Bey, Drake, Future, Weezy, King Push, Meek, they are all in there, and the video truly shines.

“Feels Like Summer” probably will not be the number one record in the country. It doesn’t have the same controversial vibe as “This is America” but the conversation around “Feels Like Summer” will be high this week. What did Gambino mean by this? What did Gambino mean by that? Who’s in? Who’s out? Why was certain celebrity’s left out? Like sex in the 80s, conversations sell. Gambino’s true genius is that he is dominated the conversation with his visuals, and the songs just happened to be good too.