Camp

Camp is the debut studio album by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover), released in November 2011 on Glassnote Records and produced by Ludwig Göransson and Donald Glover. The album introduced Glover as a legitimate hip-hop artist despite his existing fame as a comedian, actor, and TV writer on Community, and its frank, sometimes painful examination of Black nerd identity, childhood trauma, and social outsiderdom generated both passionate admirers and pointed critics. Glover's introspective and occasionally excruciating honesty about his experiences of racial alienation and social awkwardness gave Camp a quality unlike anything in contemporary rap. 'Bonfire,' the lead single, balanced clever wordplay with intense personal confession, and the album's climactic title track is a stunning extended monologue about a formative childhood experience. Camp is a polarizing but genuinely important debut that established Donald Glover as one of his generation's most complex and daring creative voices.