Have you ever seen an episode of Community? You probably remember Troy and Abed getting into some adorable adventure or Troy's lovable childishness. Well, the actor behind Troy, Donald Glover, just released Camp, a new album under his DJ name Childish Gambino. Ignore your preconceptions as you play the album—this isn't the Donald Glover you know.

That's not to say that this Donald Glover isn't funny, but his humor on the album is best when examined deeper. He isn't "cute" and seems to have no interest in trying to seem it. When talking about the anxiety of fitting in with his newfound fame on the track "Hold You Down," he raps, "Culture shock at barber shops cause I ain't hood enough./ We all look the same to the cops, ain't that good enough?" Meaning that he isn't as accepted by black culture since becoming successful, yet the problems he deals with are the same as those of the people who ostracize him.

On the whole, the music on the album takes a back seat to the lyrics. I get the feeling that the beats in many of the songs could be entirely swapped out from track to track without affecting the quality. This is both good and bad. For the record, I wasn't a huge fan of Gambino's previous albums. I found them fun, but imitations of what worked for others instead of something substantially different. I still feel that way about much of the music on this album.

Luckily for Gambino, his messages and his lyrics are poignant enough to make up for the weakness of the music. It's telling that Gambino saved his most pointed verses for his first major release instead of his previous free-to-download EPs. He sees the spotlight surrounding him and he's saying as much as he can. But this album resonates most when Gambino's storytelling, humor, anger and production work in unison.

On the opening tracks "Outside," "Backpackers," "L.E.S.," "Hold You Down" and "That Power," Gambino creates songs that are as enjoyable to listen to as they are to think about. Other songs like "Fire Fly" aren't bad, but have hooks that seem to be trying a bit too hard. "Heartbeat" is enjoyable enough, but you can practically see him waving to radio stations hoping for it to be played. "You See Me" feels like an attempt to appeal to the more "hardcore" rap crowd by way of misogyny and aggression and feels like a cheap waste of his talent. Gambino spends so much of the album trying to assert his differentness, and when his songs do that, he's refreshing and enjoyable. When he tries to make his first major album more like other popular mainstream rap, he seems stale and scared.

The entire album has a College Dropout feel to it. While Kanye and Gambino are completely different as artists, there is an autobiographical sense of immediacy to both of their albums. They both have points to make about rap, culture and life by way of personal allegory and an overt sense that this may be the only chance they'll get to express themselves to such a large audience. Obviously that ended up not being true for Kanye, but it remains to be seen for Gambino.

Camp is an album dripping with adolescence. Gambino is angry with the state of race relations in this country. He's angry about his love life. He's angry about what people expect from him and the ways that fame has changed his life for the worse. He's also passionate, reckless and intelligent. Whereas Kanye featured other rappers who were at the top of their game to help carry Dropout, Gambino doesn't give anyone else a chance—he has too much to say. This album is narcissistic and self-obsessed, but necessarily so.

It doesn't matter if it's Childish Gambino or Donald Glover; it is still a work in progress. If he could trust himself a bit more, he'd be primed to release an album with a completely original sound. But compared to his previous releases, his growing pains are an absolute treat. I would have given the album a lower rating, but his talent for writing and rapping are too undeniable. I would have given the album a higher rating, but he isn't there yet. He hasn't figured out how to be completely unique, but he's on his way. This may be my lowest rated, but most recommended album. 7.5/10