#RAWTHOUGHTS on random songs 1/29/25

Okay so this is probably my third favorite song off of Because The Internet. According to the Rap Rankings 1-10 scale(the only scale that matters) I rate this at a flat 8, which means I really like it. Telegraph Ave and Zealots of Stockholm are 9 minuses for me, which means I love them. But minus means you feel less strongly about it so... how do you lightly love something?

Can you rate people like that? Like "I like them a lot" versus "I guess I love them"? You probably could to be honest. Sure, I kinda love you. Nah I only like you a lot. But a lot a lot.

So the song itself. The title is a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, where it is revealed that the Earth is a giant computer designed to find the answer to life, the universe and everything. Unfortunately the Earth(the first one anyway) is destroyed before the answer is found.

(Sidenote: was Donald Glover on LUE? If you're online enough to name a song after Weev, which is the song this one leads into, there's a chance. Rappers are hella online sometimes, especially that early to mid millennial cohort. Danny Brown owns every issue of Sonichu.)

Like many of my favorite Childish Gambino songs, this is carried by vibes. It starts out with this kind of...apocalyptic bordello organ. Imagine if the world was ending during a 90s Cinemax vampire orgy. That would be the main chord. The synths build off that chord in a very 2013 way then it goes back to the organ.

Childish's first verse, it's cool. He starts off with some nostalgic, existential shit and then "A on my chest like a chipmunk/Alvin, Theodore". Without fail he's got to get off some kind of bad punchline. He moves on but it does kind of stick out like a sore thumb given both the themes of the verse and the production.

I never went to Childish Gambino's music for lyrical deftness. He has a good sense of pocket and which inflections to use but the actual writing leaves me wanting sometimes. In a lot of instances, such as the first verse of this song, it seems like he's trying a little too hard to be cute or clever. He'll say something deep or interesting and then follow it up with a little punchline, even if it doesn't really fit the vibe. This might be instincts from his previous career as a comedian and comedy writer. He wrote for maybe the most jam packed sitcom that isn't early Simpsons and I guess old habits die hard. To his credit, he's much less cringeworthy on here than Camp. There's no "Something crazy and Asian on my arm... Virginia Tech!"s on here.

"White hood, white hood... OK K K" on Sweatpants works, "Girl why you lyin, girl why you Mufasa" on “3005” works, even "That's a space bar" after that Tang line on “The Worst Guys” works. I'm not necessarily against this trait of his it just doesn't work for me on here even though it's less obvious. It didn't fit the vibe.

The obvious comparison made around the time that Because the Internet was released was between Childish and Drake. It makes sense, they both rap and sing, they were both on TV, they both have interesting relationships to whiteness that have been discussed ad nauseum in the mid-2010s thinkpiece industry.

I will say that Drake is more consistent and eventually learned how to blend rapping and singing much better. Right around the time Nothing Was the Same came out(ironically one of his more rap heavy albums), which is the same general time period as BtI. As far as technical rapping ability and pockets go he edges out Gambino. One of the interesting aspects of this is how it factors into the ghostwriting allegations. Does his ability to perform mean that he's a good writer(he can figure out how to do, say "Worst Behavior") or does it mean that he's easier to write for?

What Childish does have over Drake is, and this is going to sound weird to say about someone who was part of two NBC sitcoms, authenticity. Or at least perceived authenticity. Drake knows how to sound sad and bitter about whichever 23 year old r/redscarepod poster he's currently subbing in his latest effort. Gambino actually sounds vulnerable.

This is shown by his willingness to take Ls on wax. Drake will fall in love with a stripper and have a threesome with her and her coworker but there’s no way he would ever, say, get the yips when trying to smash like Gambino does on “The Worst Guys.” In the aforementioned “Telegraph Ave” his character talks about real fears about a relationship that might not be working and how he doesn’t know anyone there and whether or not it’s worth saving. There’s a real sense of… I don’t want to say helplessness or resignation but there is a sense of real pleading and hoping that Drake has never really been able to tap into. Even in his sadboy “simping” songs, Drake always has to have the upper hand somehow. It’s akin to that one rumored clause that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson(which he’ll never escape) has where he won’t look bad on screen, despite building his name on looking good in defeat.

Much like his predilection for putrid punchlines, this could stem from his other career. Donald Glover, as previously mentioned, was a writer for 30 Rock and a writer/cast member for Community. Of course he would later go on to do Atlanta. Most of his writing was/is in service of people outside of himself. He has been creating characters and scenarios professionally since the age of 20. This album had a screenplay attached to it as conceptually it was supposed to be the soundtrack to a movie!

Childish Gambino can do a “Passionfruit”(one of my favorite Drake songs by the way I give it a 10(rating has been changed as of March 27th 2025 and the article released that day), literally one of my favorite songs ever) but there’s no way Drake could do a “Telegraph Ave” or a “Me and Your Mama”(10 just off that guitar towards the end after the crescendo). And since I mentioned Sonichu earlier, the creator of that could do “Hold On We’re Going Home”. Which I also really like.

Drake as an artist(he has written for Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Kanye and others so I don't get the divide) really only knows how to write himself. He can only really envision himself inhabiting himself and engaging in scenarios he would engage in. I will say that in his defense, it does work a lot of the time.

I enjoy "Mafioso Drake" because half of the time it just comes off as Aubrey Graham complaining about having to be Drake all the time. It does seem pretty tiring. Drake complaining about flight check-ins and bad place setting is really just him complaining about his job and despite these being fake problems that's pretty relatable. Probably the most relatable thing in the world.

I never watched a single episode of Degrassi , but I've seen Drake on SNL and as an awards host and he's serviceable. He's not bad and he will deliver the lines with the right amount of emotional gravity. A perfectly capable actor. Not to bring it back to Red Scare but he's male Dasha in that regard. Perfectly fine.

It begs the question of why he hasn't tried to get back into it. This isn't a matter of caring about the craft like former child star Mos Def, whose omnipresence on premium movie channels is one of the few bright spots of Bush's second term. This is about pure cynicism and we're talking about someone who jumped feet first into crypto sports betting. Rappers used to try to get into Hollywood all the time! How many movies did DMX have with Steven Seagal? I liked the RZA in Coffee and Cigarettes but Rae can't act for shit!

I saw Date Night and the reboot of The Wiz and Drake at the very least is a better actor than Common. You can make the argument that he's a slightly better rapper but that's a whole other argument. So why hasn't the guy who likes to be omnipresent and who likes to pretend to be a mobster and who likes giant payouts at least tried to be in some shitty blockbuster?

For the second chorus and the bridge Azealia Banks comes in and well, she bodies it. That's about all that really needs to be said. She really feels like the high priestess that is going to oversee the last rites of humanity. For all we know she most likely will be. I don't really place much faith or even know much about astrology but both her and Kanye are Geminis(like myself) and as someone who does a lot of the same, albeit to a much lesser extent, they act that way because they know how good they are. I write a decentish poem(@screendamageclub on IG) and in my head Marv Albert is shouting "FROM DOWNTOWN!!!!!". Do you know how gassed I would be if I made, say "Desperado" or "Soda"? Do you?!!!

The final verse and beat switch is... way too 2013. Honestly it brings the song down a point for me. The dubstep drop, the GPOY reference. It's not for me. I suppose it fits with the time it came out in.

Honestly it sucks this song hasn’t been used in more movie trailers and AMVs. It’s actually kinda perfect for that.