Bando Stone and the New World, Nate

One will not leave Bando Stone curious about Childish Gambino's influences—pick any of the big rappers¹ from 2010, and you've more or less hit it on the head—and it takes legitimate art and ability to replicate their sounds so completely. One will also not leave Bando Stone with a sense of purpose or perspective outside that mimicry. RIP to Childish Gambino, the most luxurious and accomplished covers act of the blog era.

¹I hear a lot of Kanye in the production and what I would call the aesthetic choices, I hear a lot of Take Care-era Drake in the timber and structure of the raps themselves, and I hear a lot of Frank Ocean in parts that don't cleanly shade to either of those two poles. This has always been the problem to me with this guy, he just sounds like a talented guy who is influenced by, but cannot iterate on, the style of much better performers. He has always sucked as far music goes (videos / packaging / marketing is a whole different thing, which he is very good at). As far as actor/musicians go, he's at the top of the mountain, I can at least say that.