If you remember the Childish Gambino song ‘My Hoodie’, you’ll recognise Chaz Kangas as the second verse. However, you might not remember the track, considering its unreleased status and the fact that it’s over ten years old at this point.
However, whether you know the song or not, looking back on Childish Gambino’s early years is always interesting. Sure, the song ‘My Hoodie’ feels like an undiscovered gem, but if you want to see something even rarer, the pair teamed up—or, one might say, duked it out a little—in a rap battle back during their NYU days.
Donald Glover—Childish Gambino’s real name, and the name he acts under, for those who don’t know—is also an actor and comedian, and he was coming up in all areas of his career by the time he reached NYU. However, it’s easy to see in this rap battle that he was just a normal college student, acting like a kid just like everyone else around him.
The rap battle footage, in all honesty, isn’t the best. It’s poor quality, and the sound is grainy at best. The pair both rap over a live band of their fellow students, and the music is so loud that it’s sometimes hard to understand what they’re saying. And yet, it’s still fun and sweet to see Gambino so young performing freestyle with his friends.
The song and overall rap battle isn’t anything necessarily to write home about, but you can definitely notice the flow and even a few words and phrases that continue to appear in his discography well into the future. But even considering some of the more recent songs and albums to come out of Childish Gambino’s efforts, seeing the simplicity of where he began makes a lot of sense, while still demonstrating his immense artistic and career growth.
As for his rap battle partner Chaz Kangas, he’s still somewhat underground as an artist, and hasn’t necessarily taken off with the same speed as Childish Gambino. It seems that he’s built a career in radio, but is also still rapping just like his NYU counterpart.
If you want to check out the rap battle that Chaz Kangas and Childish Gambino put together with a backing band of peers during the NYU days, you can find it linked below. Even if it isn’t a masterpiece, it’s certainly fun!
