The Message of Childish Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” - Avi Litvak
Image from Amazon.com
Donald Glover, who became famous from the sitcom “Community,” exhibited his third talent behind acting and comedy -- music. He initially fit into the hip-hop genre, but “‘Awaken, My Love!’” does not. Its funky diversity classifies it as soul, but each song’s uniqueness spreads the radius of what it can be described as. Glover created his pseudonym, “Childish Gambino” out of a random name generator, and his third album perfectly exemplifies that randomness. But not in a wild way. In a way that shows the diversity and internal freedom that Glover possesses that lets him traverse over different topics and tunes. The album is organized chaos, it uses a variety of different beats but simultaneously has an order to it.
Throughout the album, the trope of “Mama” comes up again and again, with tracks 10 and 11, “The Night Me and Your Mama Met” and “Stand Tall” alluding back to the beginning.
Separately, the ninth track, “Baby Boy,” is describing his newborn son, Legend (born in 2016, the year of the album’s release). The song begins with, “Little hands, little feet, tiny heart, tiny beat,” and continues into a song of praise and love for the child. It is unexpected that an album like this should devote an entire song to his son, especially how unfitting it is with the rest of the album, but Glover makes it work. It feels right, and it feels that his song was a part of every song, and not just “Baby Boy.”
The album’s first track is “Me and Your Mama,” and it starts with a subtle, lullaby-like melody, and transfers into gospel. Once Glover starts singing, the essence of the song becomes clear when he says, “Girl you really got a hold on me!” It’s a love song. Not an ordinary love song however as it is directed at his son. Candidly in the title, “Your Mama” refers to the mother of his child.
When looking at the album as a whole, it has multiple themes, the first of which being love. “Me and Your Mama,” “Have Some Love,” and “Redbone” are all examples of this. In addition, the tenth track, “The Night Me and Your Mama Met,” is a perfect representation of this theme. The word “Your” indicates that he is talking to his son, and the peaceful, wordless structure of the song tells the tale of his love story with the child’s mother.
The second is Glover reminiscing about his own mother. “Stand Tall” is an ode to his mother, and most of the song revolves around things she said to him. “Smile when you can.” Glover also shows that his mother told him “Keep all your dreams, keep standing tall,” but to which he responds, “Oh, no, no, no… There is a voice inside us all… somebody cares about you, I do.” Here, it becomes clear that Glover is using his mother’s advice to converse with his love interest. He shows that he trusts her and he takes her advice to heart and will use the things his mother told him to raise his son.
Last, is Glover feeling pressure on him, for a variety of reasons. He feels that the world wants something from him, but he only wants to live freely.
The best example of this is in Track 4, “Zombies.” The zombies that are described in the song represent societal pressures on Glover and how much he hates it. When he says, “You will find there is no safe place to hide,” it signifies that he cannot escape the external pressure on his shoulders.
The subsequent song, “Riot,” expels these emotions in a far more upbeat melody, hence the name. Here, Glover is taking on the mentality of a rioter, rather than keeping his anger to himself, he feels the responsibility to take action. “I can feel it deep inside my body… I got to move it, this pressure brewing, this world don’t feel alright.” Glover demonstrates with this lyric that not only is he feeling this pressure, but everyone is. The “world” that he calls attention to is not just his world, but anyone’s. “Riot” is the epitome of the pressure theme, because it fizzes up throughout the beginning of the album, and it finally detonates. “Riot” is the energy of the album, the passion.
In Glover’s most recent album, “3.15.20,” he diverges away from the retro soul genre that “‘Awaken My Love!’” revolved around and delves into an almost indescribable meditational album of storytelling, hope, and revelation. It does, however, maintain some resonance from “Awaken My Love!” because he once again discusses personal issues he faces. One of which in “3.15.20” was the idea that everyone on Earth has similar ambitions, and everyone wants to succeed. He says “Tryna save myself,” in reference to this problem, by which he means that he too, wants to survive.
Donald Glover is infamous for calling out problems with the world, one of his most notorious songs being “This is America,” a protest about gun violence. However, “‘Awaken, My Love!’” is different. It does not comment on something concrete or eminently visible. It discusses problems below the surface. Glover wants to live his life in peace. He wants to have privacy, freedom, and most importantly, a decrease in societal pressure. With this strong message lying interlinearly within the lyrics, he still manages to discuss love, memory, and happiness. Herein lies the genius of the album: its spectrum of meaning makes each song its own story, and each lyric its own chapter. When listening to Childish Gambino, one can expect one thing and be shown not just another thing, but a multitude of other things all elucidated with aspiration.
