Top Tier Tier Lists: Childish Gambino
Making series names is harder than you think
17 May 2025I’m trying a new format out for the blog today, we’re doing Tier Lists baby! I re-listened to all of Childish Gambino’s discography so I could rank everything on a cool little tier list. And then to justify it being a blog post, I wrote little reviews for every release so you can get some insight into how I feel. Let’s get ranking!
Before we look at the tier list, you might be asking who is Childish Gambino? It’s Donald Glover’s stage name for when he does his music stuff. Do you remember Redbone? Maybe you remember This Is America? It’s that guy.
Don't even bother dude
Pre-EP work - For the most part I don’t go back past EP but it’s worth talking about these releases for completion’s sake I guess. I didn’t bother relistening to these like I did with everything else so my feelings might not hold up but overall, Culdesac is fine, I Am Just A Rapper 1 & 2 are pretty bad. I haven’t listened to Pointdexter because I think it’s going to be worse than I Am Just A Rapper and I can’t do that to myself. I care so little that I’m not even bothering to put the photos in for this blog post. You’ll just have to look at the tier list and figure it out.
It ain't making the playlist
Camp - I used to like this album a lot more but I guess I grew out of it because oof this has aged. The Asian fetishism bars, the over abundance of subpar punchline raps, and just the overall vibe of someone thinking they’re a lot better than they are. Like look, Gambino’s always had an ego problem where he thinks he’s one of the best, but it’s not at all earned on this album when it feels like he’s just emulating his inspirations. It’s not to say that there’s not a couple of good cuts here, but also there are times where his attitude towards women make this like two steps off incel rap.
Won't turn it off if it's on
EP - More listenable than his previous mixtapes but not by much. The short run time really carries this thing. Freaks and Geeks is not as good as I remember but Gambino saying “minority report” is a premium vocal stim.
Pretty good
Bando Stone & the New World - Childish Gambino’s alleged final album, and man what a weird one to end it on. It’s a soundtrack to a movie that has yet to come out (if it’s even real, we haven’t heard anything about it since July 2024), but I think that causes the album to feel a bit all over the place. You get interspersed dialogue from the movie throughout the tracks and you can sorta imagine what might be happening in the story but I don’t think that really lands in the intended way. I don’t think there’s a song on this that I don’t like, and it was really fun to hear Gambino dip back into rap as well as expand into things like rock on it. But I also think this album will always be tied to the alleged movie as opposed to being a standalone album, and that’s also a really weird way to end a music career that’s been going on for nearly 20 years.
03.15.20/Atavista - With 3.15.20 and the updated re-release Atavista, it’s, understandably, hard to talk about one without talking about the other. They share practically identical tracklists, they sound very similar to each other and they’re both a mixed bag - but I mean that’s what you get with a re-release, duh. I’ve written about them before but my overall feelings are that there’s nothing wrong with the album but also there’s nothing particularly special about it either. The songs are good but none are career highlights, Atavista’s removal of the track transitions remove a lot of character from the release but 3.15.20’s lack of track titles make things less memorable/blend together and it didn’t really feel like a good ending to the Childish Gambino moniker (or maybe Donald Glover’s music career? Super unclear tbh).
Turn that shit up
Kauai - The accompanying EP to STN MTN. This EP sounds like Summer to me, specifically like a beach at sunset kinda vibe. This is something that’s been in yearly rotation for me since I first listened to it. There is one real downside to the EP though - the Jaden Smith features. He shows up for two tracks doing spoken word bits where he’s playing The Boy from Because The Internet. And boy do those bits stink! Meandering reflections that say nothing and to be honest don’t really contribute to the story of The Boy in any real meaningful way so it’s a huge waste of time. What kills me is that one of these monologues is at the start of the final track which has one of my favourite Gambino flows of all time. I used to know the exact timecode to skip to so I could go straight to the Gambino part (1:49 btw) but these days I just have to suffer through it. I don’t even mind some of Jaden’s work, SYRE was pretty good! But this is just terrible and a blight on an otherwise great little EP.
R O Y A L T Y - Crazy how much a step up this is for something that was only released less than a year later than Camp. Gambino really finds his voice here imo. His punchline delivery is less eyeroll inducing and he’s not talking about wanting to sleep with Asian women every single track. There’s so many artists I heard or noticed for the first time on this mixtape - artists like Beck, Danny Brown, and Schoolboy Q immediately come to mind. There’s just so much to love on this release, I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for it so I’m glad it holds up.
STN MTN - A love letter to 2000s era Atlanta hip hop and mixtapes. I didn’t really “get” it when I first listened to this and only cared for maybe 1 or 2 tracks, but now I gotta say, I enjoy it a lot. I still wish we got a full cover of “U Don’t Have to Call” but at least I’ll always have the Mura Masa remix. I think it’s kinda funny that at the Gambino had a throwback Gangsta Grillz mixtape and then Tyler The Creator had a near identical concept 7 years later despite having that weird short lived one-sided beef with Gambino. It’s such a shame this isn’t on streaming because that means majority of people won’t bother seeking it out. Go listen to it here.
Personal Classic (probably)
Because The Internet - BTI felt like yet another jump in artistry for Gambino. Production wise, there’s a real big variety of sounds that you hadn’t heard him perform on before, a lot of it a far cry from his indie pop flips from the ‘I Am Not A Rapper’ era. So many tracks just have this vibe that I feel like I only really get from this album. I think this album does a really fantastic job of encapsulating the feeling of what the internet felt like in 2013 with mentions of Viber and Worldstar, worries about 3D printed guns, a name drop of Andrew Auernheimer, and even just the usage that era terms like “troll” and “GPOY” before they fell out of vogue. Even a lot of Gambino’s raps, which still maintain his love for punchlines, have this constant feeling of detached irony and/or smug know-it-all-ness which was fits that era of online. Mix all of that with the conceptual story of the album, told through a screenplay set to the music and also Gambino “playing” the character of The Boy in interviews through this era, and you’re left with a really cool experience that nothing really quite compares to.
“Awaken, My Love!” - This album holds a really interesting place in Gambino’s discography. It’s a hard change in direction for him, abandoning his raps to instead release a soul funk album. I don’t think that’s what anybody would have expected from him, and to be honest, it’s still crazy to me that the same guy who made Camp made this. I’d contend that it contains Gambino’s best songwriting to date, it has him engaging in extended metaphors in each track and I don’t think there’s a single punchline to be heard. I have to say that this album did become a little less special to me after I found out he’s aping Parliament and Funkadelic tracks. Hearing Bootsy Collins’ I’d Rather Be With You gave me this real lightbulb “oh” moment of realisation of what Awaken My Love! is but also I wouldn’t have learned about it without Gambino so I guess I can’t complain too much.
Wow that’s a lot of writing for something which is explained easily via an image! I’d love to sign off with something like “what do you think? Let me know in the comments” like a true #ContentCreator but I don’t have any comments on these posts. I guess if you’ve got thoughts, message me on wherever you talk to me.