In a world where a black child isn't safe, the Afrofuturistic music of P-Funk tells of another world where that same child is a necessity and a star. Before the term Afrofuturism was officially coined, P-Funk was music that contained science fiction elements, creating an intergalactic world where black people were the heroes and black issues were the concern. Parliament and Funkadelic were bands that, more than making amazing music, created a utopia. It makes sense that Glover would end up in this space. A man who once joked that he'd "rather have AIDS than a baby" is, here, suddenly steadfast and ready to handle this new challenge and impart knowledge such as "stay woke. Even more, it's noted in the song that this was advice that Glover's father said. "Keep all your dreams, keep standing tall / If you are strong you cannot fall / There is a voice inside us all / So smile when you can": This comes at the end during "Stand Tall" and guides much of the attitude of the album. Its heavy use of Funkadelic and Sly Stone instrumentation, Bootsy's wobbly singing style, and high-pitched Prince wails are in service to the love, hopefulness, and, of course, fears about bringing a new life into the world. But where Yeezus felt like an exorcism, " Awaken, My Love!" feels more like, well, an awakening. Along with the frustrations he was having with the fashion industry, he was beginning the terrifying transition to fatherhood and being a husband, and the music comes to terms with this fear. One of the more interesting aspects of Yeezus, beyond the music itself, was his headspace surrounding it. It would be West's first marriage and child. A recent and easy comparison point would be Yeezus, an album made in the midst of Kanye West's engagement to a then-pregnant Kim Kardashian. The music made around the time of a great, dramatic shift in an artist's personal life gives insight into where they are mentally during all this change. The most interesting thing about the album has less to do with the music itself but instead the circumstances around it. It's a cover band job that works for our particular social climate but not so much on its own merits musically. The effort is there and laudable, but the music is missing that sense of true bewilderment and thrill that made those Funk records so great. " Awaken, My Love!" by contrast uses the psychedelic funk of George Clinton and Bootsy Collins and makes for a more rosy vision of our age but is much less daring in its sound. Also there were plenty of good songs on it. His last album, Because The Internet, wasn't amazing, but it was intriguing-dark and nihilistic about the internet age, battling between hopeless and hopeful. Childish Gambino has always gotten a bad rap both because of Donald's bro comedy persona and it's denigration as "special black snowflake" music-raps for black kids who "aren't like the others"-but the music has always had truly insightful and original moments. Worst of all, it has all the trademarks and trapping of a musician making their "Serious Album" it's prestige music meant to win over critics at a time when the pendulum of black music is swinging back to social and political commentary to reflect what's happening to the world in general and black people in particular. "Awaken, My Love!" from its spacey, provocative album cover to the last song is pure Funkadelic cosplay, an attempt to adapt Maggot Brain for the social media age.
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