Take a look around. We’re all algorithmically dependent to a concerning degree. But as Jaden Smith recently pointed out, it isn’t like several artists didn’t try to warn us, Donald Glover among them.
In an update shared to Twitter, a site I still keep reminding you that I refuse to refer to as X, Jaden pointed to Glover’s Childish Gambino moniker when making a succinct point about algorithms using his oft-emulated Capitalize Every New Word style.
“You Being Programmed By The Algorithm, Gambino Tried To Tell You,” Jaden wrote.
The multi-hyphenate, whose own work with Gambino includes two tracks on Kauai EP back in 2014, later appeared to reference this topic again, asking “Whose Thought Is That?”
This all comes shortly after Jaden revealed to fans that he had taken 29 days and counting off from Instagram, adding that he's feeling "good about it."
Gambino's Because the Internet, released in 2013 alongside a fan-dissected short film (the Danielle Fishel-featuring "Clapping for the Wrong Reasons") and a 73-page screenplay focused on a character named only as The Boy, is a concept album exploring how irrevocably interwoven with the internet our lives had become. In the years since, that interwovenness has only accelerated.
Gambino explored somewhat similar territory on the 3.15.20 cut “Algorhythm," released in 2020.
More recently, Glover has indeed been trying to tell us all something with a series of real-life performance pieces, of sorts, from the mysterious HiHi agency. As we reported last week, the group's confounding activities—including a stand-up show evacuation and a pair of televised furries—are linked to Glover's upcoming Mr. & Mrs. Smith series.
As for larger algorithm concerns, let's hope we can all rise above the Spotifycial slush dump before it's too late.
