“Fire Fly” – Childish Gambino
We wrote about Donald Glover’s rap alias “Childish Gambino” a year ago, as we featured his Internet hit “Freaks and Geeks” for our Track of the Day. At the time, his most recent work was an ambitious EP that featured the aforementioned track, along with several other superbly catchy and well thought-out pieces. Since then, Glover’s been a busy man. He’s still in NBC’s almost-canceled, thankfully-saved comedy Community, released his second Comedy Central special Weirdo and still somehow found time to put out his first studio album Camp in November, which contains our second track for this year’s playlist.
Busy as he was, we’re certainly glad he’s found time to balance out his wealth of talents and keep working the rap game. Right now, Glover is at the top of the genre in terms of intelligence, quality and ingenuity, and “Fire Fly” is a perfect showcase of this. From chronicling the way kids used to make fun of him for being black and having a high-pitched voice, to being broke while attending NYU and skateboarding around the streets of New York to pass the time, the honesty of “Fire Fly” is something we don’t get a lot in the genre. Then again, we don’t get a lot of Fleshlight references in rap either (if you don’t know, don’t go Googling it, trust me).
All of this honesty is laid on top of an extremely fresh beat that rings reminiscent of Kanye’s “The Good Life” — a song that, for me, laid the foundation for many sweet summertime memories back in the day. Maybe that’s what Gambino was trying to do for us — or maybe not. Either way, we’re glad to have a track like “Fire Fly” for our playlist this summer, and even more glad to have a mind like Glover’s in today’s world of rap. It needed him, and so does your summer.
