On 2013’s Because the Internet, Childish Gambino, a.k.a. Donald Glover, began showing some of the otherworldly ambition that would inform his work as a famous multidisciplinary artist. The songwriter, comedian, TV writer, and general creative had his hand in many ventures when he began recording Because the Internet, in 2012. It arrived after his debut LP, 2011’s Camp, which itself was preceded by a string of mixtapes. Those releases showcased the artist’s hyper-aware rapping style, mixing in paralyzing self-doubt with moments of ecstasy and referential asides to popular memes and moments that proliferated on the internet. On Because the Internet, he firms up his style more clearly than ever before, working with co-producers Stefan Ponce and Ludwig Göransson to achieve a sprawling and unique vision. Glover’s sophomore effort was meant to honor the work he introduced on his major-label debut, but expand its philosophy into weirder, more challenging places. Alongside the album, Glover also released a short film titled Clapping for the Wrong Reasons and a 72-page screenplay to go along with the LP. The album itself is equally ambitious in scope. The title came from Beck, with Glover explaining that the alternative icon helped him realize that the internet is the language of the earth and that it’s only thanks to the internet that they’re both where they are in their careers. It was a forward-thinking approach when the record was released, and a prediction that would prove its prescience again and again. On the project, Glover showcases a firm grasp of the cultural moment, which arrived as he was winding down his role on the TV show Community to focus on his career as Childish Gambino and a TV show he had just begun developing—which would eventually become Atlanta. Despite Glover’s hectic schedule, Because the Internet is a fully formed effort, a sprawling opus that was an homage to and critical study of the rapidly changing world ushered in by the internet. Glover was, as he was willing to admit, a product of the democratization that arrived thanks to the web’s ubiquity. By the time Because the Internet arrived, though, Glover began to shape a not-small portion of online culture in his image, too.