For the writers of this blog, this was a show that we could not have been more excited for. Donald Glover is one of the most talented people in entertainment today. From writing for 30 Rock at age 25 to starring on Community to having a great stand-up comedy following, Glover was already more accolmplished than most people his age, but that wasn't enough. His first love was music and he took that step in the form of Childish Gambino. From seeing him at Bonnaroo in 2012 fresh off the release of his first real album Camp, we really wanted to see if his live show had evolved as much as his songwriting and production had. That question was answered very quickly at this show. Because the Internet showed just how much he had evolved as a rapper from mostly rapping about girls and how everybody doubted him to asking meaningful questions about life, existence, and how the hype surrounding the internet has turned people into followers and sheep at times. He still leaves some time to rap about girls, but on a much more sophisticated level that shows how much he has matured as an artist.
The first thing that we noticed about this show was the production value. The tour is called the "Deep Web Tour" and attendees can download the Deep Web app that only works onsite and turns the show into an interactive experience. As you can see in the picture to the right, there was one part of the show that allowed app users to vote on "how they were feeling." Another really cool aspect of this show was how it tied in to the concept of the album. Because the Internet is a concept album that Glover wrote an accompanying screenplay for. In the screenplay, Childish Gambino is "The Boy", a young adult living in a mansion with his friends, dealing drugs, and trolling people on the internet. At the show, the stage had a large screen where an image of the inside of a mansion was projected onto. There were also people in the background sitting on couches and just acting like they were hanging out. At one point (during the song The Party), "The Boy" gets fed up with everything and kicks everyone out of his house. At the end of the Because the Internet portion of the show, Gambino performed the song Earth: The Oldest Computer (The Last Night). While the song is going on, the "mansion" in the background starts to crumble and fall to the ground. This is one (of MANY) of the instances where the production value was amazing.
(Crawl)
(WORLDSTAR)
(Shadows)
(The Party)
Follow us after the jump for more video and insight
(Sweatpants) *Sorry for the shakiness on this one
(Zealots of Stockholm [Free Information])
(3005)
(Earth: The Oldest Computer [The Last Night])
The second half of the show was dedicated to some of Childish Gambino's older material from Camp, his debut Freaks and Geeks EP, his Culdesac EP, and his Royalty mixtape. He brought out his brother Steve G. Lover to help him out for most of the second half and they both busted out some awesome freestyle raps. During one of the freestyles, Childish mentioned Northlake Mall (an Atlanta staple), which got a big pop out of the crowd. Now, without trying to get into too much hyperbole, this is the best rap show we have ever been to. From the live band, to Gambino's stage presence and amazing performance skill, it definitely was not your typical rap show. The music was about 90% played live with only a few samples mixed in here and there. If you have any chance to see Childish Gambino at a festival stop or at any of the other cities on his tour, we highly recommend it as it will be unlike any other rap show that you have ever been to before.
(Heartbeat/Firefly/Yaphet Kotto)
(Black Faces/All the Shine/Sunrise/Freaks & Geeks/Bonfire)
(Freestyle 1)
(Freestyle 2)
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