When I want to be a superhero I just wake up

Oh, Ace Ticket, shouldn’t you at least spell the event you’re promoting right?

I just got back from the Childish Gambino concert tonight in Boston! It was amazing.

Childish Gambino is the pseudonym of Donald Glover, the actor who plays Troy on Community. You know, this guy:

Except when he’s onstage he looks like this:

‘Cause I’mma be on these tracks
Like indie girls on Amelie
I’m rappin’ ’bout everything I go through
Everything I’m saying I’m Super Saiyan like Goku

I think his flow is sick and that he’s witty as hell (he wrote for 30 Rock!), but Donald Glover’s music doesn’t just appeal to me on a nerdy level. He raps a lot about his childhood as the smart, misfit black kid in a predominantly white school. A lot of the things he says resonate with the part of me that is the second generation immigrant, the daughter of parents who sacrificed more than she knew and more than she’s comfortable with to give her opportunities. He understands that relentless self-pressure to make good. I guess what I’m trying to say is that his music reflects a lot of the tension, pride, and defiance that characterize the way I experience my Asian-American identity.

Now you’re paying attention, pick your fucking face up
When I wanna be a superhero I just wake up
Renaissance man with a Hollywood buzz
I refuse to go back to not liking who I was.

“I refuse to go back to not liking who I was.” Is there anything more empowering than that? I was who I was, and now I am better. There’s no going back now.

I’m not affiliated or anything, but if you’re interested you can download Culdesac and EP for free and preorder his new album Camp here.