This review started as a comment on /r/hiphopheads but I just kept writing and writing so here we are.

For context: Childish Gambino is the rap pseudonym for Donald Glover, aka Troy on Community. A few days ago his new album "Because The Internet" leaked online, a week before release. The quality was unusually good for a leak, but the last song cut off a minute or two early. Anyway, today Gambino posted a link to a site called becausetheinter.net, which is basically an interactive screenplay (with visual elements) which tells a story alongside the album. He's been building up to this release for months, and his personal life has blurred with the fictional version of himself that he's presenting here. Also the music is great and I highly recommend you check out the screenplay. So here's my unintended review.

I thought the screenplay itself was interesting in its portrayal of depression. It kinda confirmed what I thought the album was about when I first listened to it, but it put a lot of songs in context. The story itself almost doesn't matter. It's trying to convey a state of mind more than a narrative. Some moments just didn't work at all, though. My favorite scene was the one between him and the nurse, but having his friends show up and IMMEDIATELY tell him that his dad is dead? Just seemed cheesy to me. Also, the scene with the guy from What Does The Fox Say was dumb. I get how it fits into the theme and everything, but it just wasn't that funny.

I really liked how he used emojis to communicate the characters' feelings. It ties in to the point of the whole screenplay, which is that the internet has changed how we communicate (for better or for worse) and given us a universal language. The Boy finds a friend in Stockholm because they both have Twitter, for example. And right there in the first scene, we see him getting joy out of trolling. It's probably the only time we see him happy (or at least as close to happy as that character can get) in the entire screenplay. He's drawing energy off of the emotions of others, and he provokes those emotions himself to get that energy. I guess Gambino is saying that the internet has kinda made us all sociopaths, unable to relate to anyone in real life but happy when we can get people we don't know mad at us. The Boy certainly has some sociopathic tendencies throughout. Just like the stuff he was tweeting yesterday. The kids who love talking about stuff from the internet but don't care that Nelson Mandela died. They can only relate to each other through internet short/longhand. Anything outside of that sphere doesn't make an impact. I still think that his emotional state comes from his depression, mainly. But depression can numb your senses and emotions. I've had first-hand experience.

It's also saying that the internet has changed how we perceive death. Not only does The Boy film a guy getting killed on his phone, but he's almost compelled to do so. He doesn't even realize that he's started doing it. That's where "Worldstar" as a song really started to click for me. And The Boy's attitude towards death is a major aspect of his character. He doesn't seem to care very much when his father dies. The first scene indicates that they couldn't really relate to each other. The screenplay's ultimate point about death is that we can't choose when it'll come. He tries to kill himself, but fails. When he tells the nurse this, the nurse basically calls him on his bullshit. He says, "It's not that hard to do." Basically saying that if The Boy wanted to die, it wouldn't, literally, be hard to kill himself. But there's something holding him back. There's some force older than the universe that's going to decide when he dies. That's what he's saying in the last scene. You won't wake up on your last day knowing that it's your last day. There's nothing that you'll be able to do about your death. But since The Boy knows this, he tries to exert the smallest amount of control possible. He wants to choose how he dies, if he can't choose when. So it's interesting that the screenplay seems to know that it's his last day, even if he doesn't. When he leaves the house, it says that his girlfriend and him "don't see each other anymore." Donald Glover the screenwriter knows that Childish Gambino the character is going to die. But like the lyric says, "what's the line" between them? The screenplay really muddies that line.

So what happens at the end? Does he die? It's pretty vague. The last image of him is in a bright-white yogurt shop, which could indicate heaven. And right before that, we see him floating face-down in a pool. But that's in his imagination. The final three lines, to me, seem to be talking about Dude 1, not The Boy. The last action written is Dude 1 turning and sho(uting) to The Boy, but he's suddenly cut off. Then a few last breaths. Then silence. If The Boy was being shot, that last action would be his, don't you think? Unless Dude 1 is shouting at The Boy to get down and take cover, but he's too late. I think the biggest clue is that last line about his girlfriend. "They don't see each other anymore." That's not something you'd typically write if The Boy was going off to die. You'd say, "They never see each other again." But the writer is writing from the present-tense. The implication is that The Boy is still around, but he doesn't see Naomi anymore. I don't think he dies.

So, wow, this is just great. Even if it didn't work in spots, that's okay, because this is a hugely ambitious project. I know it's only been a few days, but Because The Internet might be AOTY for me. It's like nothing else I've heard this year. It doesn't even feel like an album, in the traditional sense. I won't go back to this just to listen to songs. I'll go back to slip into this world. That's what Gambino's done here. He's created a fleshed-out world with a fascinating main character, and he's done it partially through his music. What other artist has attempted something even remotely this artistically ambitious this year? Or even this decade? Jay Z thinks he has his pulse on the internet with his album-releasing app, but he's leagues below what Gambino is doing. I can't call this "game-changing," because I don't see other artists releasing similar stuff alongside their albums (maaaaaaaybe Death Grips, but they already announced that they're doing a soundtrack to Zack Hill's movie, right?) It's messy, and occasionally heavy-handed, but it's always fresh, original, and intriguing. No one else can do what Gambino just did. Say what you will about him, but you can't call him lazy. He's been working on this for months, creating a storyline for us to follow with both his work and his real life. When I say he created a world, what I mean is that he showed us his world. That's the whole point of the monologue at the end of "That Power," right? That he's going to be as open and honest about his feelings as possible? By blurring the line between himself and this character he's created, he's made a point about how the internet blurs the line between ourselves and our online personas. Online, we say exactly how we feel. Stuff we'd never say in the real world. The Boy is totally incapable of showing how he feels. But Gambino isn't. This screenplay, about a boy played by Gambino who can't communicate his emotions, is Gambino's way of communicating his emotions. Come on, that's brilliant.

And that doesn't even touch the Roscoes Wetsuit stuff, which is a whole nother layer of great social commentary.

tl;dr - Because The Internet is a fucking astounding, multi-layered project that no one else in music right now is capable of replicating.