Some artists can be extremely sensitive to criticism. Maybe it’s the fact that a harsh review equals bad publicity, which messes with their money. Maybe it’s just being protective over the music that means a lot to them. Regardless, whenever there’s a bad review in publications like Pitchfork, it becomes a major piece of discourse. It’s something Childish Gambino became quickly acquainted with when outlets trashed his debut album Camp.
In an interview with Noisey in 2013, Donald Glover reflected on Pitchfork trashing his album with a 1.6 review out of 10. Rather than look at things for validation on the internet, he looked at it as a blessing. He essentially embraced the mindset that all publicity is good publicity. Moreover, Childish Gambino emphasized that it’s all business and branding.
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“Pitchfork helped me a lot. First of all, there’s no way I can make something worse than that. It would be impossible. It put a lot of people on my side, too. But I’m not worried. If I worked for Pitchfork, I wouldn’t give myself a 9.0 either,” Gambino admitted.
Childish Gambino Reacts to All of the Bad Reviews on His First Album
“They’re a brand, they sell tickets to a show they put on every year. They’re not going to give a 1.6 to someone who can be at their show and sell tickets. They’re not the same publication that I grew up with, anyway. It’s changed, and that happens. Any good idea starts with a movement, becomes a business, and ends up a racket. And I’m not calling Pitchfork a racket, but they’re a business. And I didn’t fit their business structure. But I just want there to be a conversation, and this started a conversation about what Childish Gambino stands for,” Glover continued.
Despite this acceptance, he also called out the writer of the Pitchfork review specifically. “I know people are going to trash the music, I see them doing that s**t and I see where they’re coming from. There’s s**t on Camp where if I saw it as a kid, I would say that that s**t is corny. And I’m willing to take that,” Childish Gambino said. “But the s**t that I didn’t like about that Pitchfork article and that really made me mad is that the writer—and I know this n***a too because he lives on my block. F**k that n***a. He’s afraid of me, and that’s something he’s gotta deal with.”
Ultimately, the Because The Internet artist argued that critics are rigid with their perspectives. “My biggest problem is that critics approach music with their mind made up just because they don’t like the person who’s making the music. I put that on myself for not doing a good enough job,” Childish Gambino added. “I definitely think that there’s reasons that they could use to say they do like me, but for whatever reason they don’t.”
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