Will we set our phasers to love him?…
[Video][Website]
[5.50]
Zach Lyon: I have way too many not-completely-related thoughts that stem from Donald Glover’s attempt at a rap career: Dave Chappelle’s assertion that musicians want to be funny and comedians want to be musicians, which always seemed a bit off, because comedy fits so snugly into music, mainly hip-hop, but cramming music into comedy mainly works for novelty records, parody songs, musical accompaniment for spoken acts, or Steve Martin playing a very respectable banjo for a niche audience; the fact that hip-hop is already perhaps too intertwined with comedy for a comedian to really make a clean break in it, as Glover seems intent to do with a new identity and a horrible random-name-generatored alias, because a rapper that isn’t at least a little bit funny already won’t be worth listening to; that regardless of the fact that Glover isn’t a very good rapper and his voice is like a parody of Drake’s, he will always have an army of hipster defenders that don’t listen to hip-hop but remain ever-worried they’re gonna cancel Community; that, regardless of that, I’m still immensely impressed with his work in Jamie xx’s remix of “Rolling in the Deep”, but only because it is centered in emotion and sadness and self-pity/hatred, which any good comedian will have in spades (and also, his voice sounds much better there); so why is “Freaks and Geeks”, of all things, embarrassing? There is so much here that would be funny if you weren’t being constantly reminded that this is serious-face hip-hop music and we’re not supposed to be thinking about his (amazing talents in) other endeavors of comedy and acting; we are not supposed to hear a comedian doing rap, we’re supposed to hear a rapper who happens to be very funny. I want to root for hell like Donald Glover in everything he does – I was ecstatic when I learned he got a writing gig on 30 Rock, let alone a starring role in the funniest show on television – but all this song makes me want to do is look over a highlight reel of his good shit. I guess the grandest thing I can say about “Freaks and Geeks,” aside from the fact that its title is more than a little bit pandering, is that it sounds like a novelty song, and fails because it isn’t trying to be one.
[4]
Kat Stevens: I know the clue is in the name but this song is so gloriously juvenile it probably wouldn’t be allowed to see Uncle Buck in the cinema (though it would certainly claim it had seen said film ten times already in the playground the next day). The lyrics are the usual swaggery pronouncements of sexual prowess but the glee and inventiveness with which they are delivered makes it sound like Childish has barely got past second base (sneaking into Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was much easier). As a result I want to ruffle his hair and give him a KitKat.
[8]
Anthony Easton: I am amused by the audacity in 20 per cent of these rhymes, offended by the misogyny in about 40 per cent, and bored by the braggadocio in the rest of them.
[7]
Martin Skidmore: Reading that Donald Glover is a comedy actor, I expected this to be painful, but it’s okay, genuine hip hop not a parody. The beats are rather lightweight and underpowered, and he’s a slightly awkward rapper, but he has some decent lines and I kind of like his tone. Not bad, not great.
[5]
Jer Fairall: For something I expected to be another Lonely Island, this reminds me much more of the manic verbal splays of underground rapper Busdriver, though Donald Glover falls quite a bit short of Regan Farquhar’s head spinning virtuosity. He more than makes up for it in wit, though, dropping too many killer one-liners here to whittle down to even a representative quotable few.
[7]
Alfred Soto: I’m reasonably confident that any member of the Jukebox with a budget and the right collaborators could record an album. We’d come up with better witticisms than “I’m runnin’ this bitch/You’re just the dog walker” too.
[1]
Jonathan Bogart: Grade possibly inflated because I watched the video rather than just listened, so my feelings about the song no doubt got mixed up with my feelings about Donald Glover the actor and comedian and perpetual highlight of the only TV show I ever go out of my way to watch. But other than that: plenty of clever lines, perhaps too much Weezy flow and too many Yeezy themes, but he’s young and part of me is just amazed that what basically amounts to a vanity hip-hop career can be any good at all.
[7]
Jonathan Bradley: If I gave points for effort, Childish Gambino would net himself a [10]. “Freaks and Geeks” is custom built for awe-struck praise; three-and-a-half-minutes of straight spitting, no hook, and culminating in the titular hashtag (“My clique should be cancelled…”) perfectly pitched to fans of Donald Glover’s day job acting in the pop-culture savvy NBC sitcom “Community.” Gosh how I wish I could tell you Gambino blacked out on this one, dude’s a triple threat, etc. But though “Freaks and Geeks” is determined to establish its author as a legitimate rapper, it forgets it must also establish him as a good one. The song is so stuffed with wordplay that it sinks even Gambino’s palpable charisma. He does get in some smart lines, however: “Chillin’ with my n-words” is a clever nod to one of his stand-up bits, and the “Ariel Pink” gag deserves to be in the running for Best New Slang Term For Vagina. Nonetheless, the song as a whole lacks the personality and the perception of effortlessness that enables smart writing to transmute into an infectious song. Those are the kinds of skills that develop with time. Don’t pull the plug on this one yet.
[5]