Metamodern Existentialism
Along with concerns of identity, Glover’s influences and work reflect existential crisis, spurred and accentuated by his race and time. Dealing with existential crisis in this world, Glover admits fear of being alone, and in an interview recollects: “when I was little, there was a big dog down the street, and I was really scared of it, but when I was with my sister, when I knew I had to protect her, I wasn’t afraid of the dog as much, because somebody was there, I had a purpose”
Essentially, existentialism offers the notion that the individual has agency and control over their choices and their life. Metamodern existentialism grapples with greater awareness of the influences on our lives, and yet still promotes the notion that individual agency and choice matter - that truth, purpose, and life can be affirmed through the actions of the individual.
Feelings of safety and danger are closely tied with the fluid nature of identity. In the script, Glover’s repeated references to people feeling “purpose” are followed with “It’s a great time,” being both sincere and ironic in acknowledgment of happiness even as his protagonist fails to feel this joy until he shares this feeling of purpose with Naomi, and they feel “less alone,” together near the end of the story (24, 44, 53, 65). Thus, while there is an acknowledgment that individuals may not completely evade the feeling of being alone, they can feel its coexistence with connection, and thus feel safer. In interviews, Glover refers to “V. 3005” as an “existential rap song,” and the romance in the hook: “no matter what you say or what you do, / when I’m alone I’d rather be with you,” reflects the desire for connection as a means of feeling safe through company (Benjamin). Thus, while upholding existentialism as thematically important, Glover alters existential notions of the individual as an independent agent, bringing the theory to the present and amalgamating it with his African-American identity and presence on the web.
“Gut n*****, so Kurt Vonne”
(a bookshelf from The Boy’s Room)
Glover revealed the influence of existentialist thinkers on his work, carrying a book on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche at public listening parties in parks around the country, placing Kurt Vonnegut’s works on The Boy’s bookshelves amongst Hacking for Dummies and Barry White’s album Just Another Way to Say I Love You in his Tumblr IRL performance, and with lyrical references (Mok; Rys; Opam).
“No Exit”
The title of his song “II. No Exit” refers to Sartre’s play No Exit, further connection with the established tradition of existentialist literature and art. The parallel between the names, Sartre’s French “Garcin” and Glover’s “The Boy,” links their desire for connection (Garcin-Estelle, The Boy and his romances) and reclusivity (“Hell is-other people!” and The Boy as a “brown recluse”) (Sartre 45). Inez, Estelle, and Garcin’s reliance on each other in No Exit for the formulation of their identities (as they hide/reveal themselves to each other) is reflected in Glover’s exploration of identity in the internet age. Furthermore, this serves as establishment of identity’s essential role in connection with others. In No Exit, there are no mirrors in the room, leading to Estelle’s worry that “when I can’t see myself I begin to wonder if I really and truly exist,” as well as Inez and Estelle’s exchange wherein Estelle uses Inez’ eyes to see herself, putting lipstick on with her help but lamenting the unreliability of Inez’ bias (Sartre 19). This in turn emphasizes notions of the formation of identity in connection with others, as well as the interplay between self and other in this process. This existential dilemma revolves around notions of identity and connection reliant upon this interplay. Traditionally, the existentialist “interpretation of structures as ‘probabilities’ rather than as ‘necessities’ preserved” past conceptions of existential freedom (Existentialism 116). However, Glover’s existential dilemma deviates from that of the thinkers before him, in that Glover grapples with both the struggle of African-American identity and the internet.
“No matter what you say or what you do,
when I’m alone I’d rather be with you”
The Boy grapples with existential worry revolving around the relationships existing between himself and others. Disconnects and failures in these relationships uncover deliberation over life and death, loneliness, happiness, safety, and connecting with another. Throughout mediums, Glover emphasizes these issues as central to existential worry. In “II. Zealots of Stockholm [Free Information]” he raps, “it’s a struggle just to keep breathing / existential asthmatic,” in description of himself. The seeming paradox of “existential asthmatic,” in the contradiction between asthma’s disabling of the individual and existentialism’s humanist agency, is the metamodern conception of existentialism explored by Glover throughout Because the Internet. The influence of modern technology on existential crisis is illustrated in Glover’s hypothetical contained later in the same song, as he supposes: “anybody can walk into any Denny’s / and wait until I’m walking in it / with a gun that they 3D printed and finish it,” as alliteration expedites the danger of technology. This illustration of the connection between modern technology contains reference to the vulnerability of life, capturing a metamodern sense of the existential ethical “clear-eyed willingness to live with inevitable ambiguity,” the thin precipice of life and death (Flynn 125).
“We don’t wanna be on Worldstar
All we wanna be is a worldstar”
This proximity between life and death is evidenced in violent events of the narrative. Early in the script, The Boy sees, “through his phone,” as he is filming an aggressive altercation, a man get shot outside of a club, and he sees the man go “back to his/the natural state,” which makes “The Boy [feel] something,” in contrast to the typical internet experience where “you really don’t have to feel much of anything unless you want to” (Glover 15-16). In the scene description, by issuing this statement on the effect of the internet and employing the second person, Glover emphasizes this moment as breaking barriers in metamodern fashion, reaching The Boy in a tangible, “felt,” way, simultaneously as he sees it through his phone screen. In the aftermath, The Boy feels a bullet hole in his coat, and the script shifts to his thoughts: “. . . i shouldn’t be (here)” bringing up existential dread, emphasized by unique syntax, such as the lower case, bold and italic typeface, and the parenthetical statement (17). The parenthetical provides a double utterance, and connects the sense of dislocation with the act of being, amplifying The Boy’s survivor’s guilt with a greater disbelief in self-purpose, meaning, or life, and prompts him to reach out to those around him in search of connection and understanding.The script calls for “II. Worldstar” to be played before this scene began, and intertextual references such as repetition of “Worldstar!” and gunshot sounds emphasize the connection. This scene also references an event Glover has repeatedly brought up in interviews where he witnessed a shooting outside a club, and mentions in his single, released during the album’s roll-out process, “Yaphet Kotto” (Pastuk). Glover thus blurs lines between reality and fiction, using real life as inspiration for art, and making the public aware of this connection as a means of emphasizing the lack of boundaries between realms. During the Deep Web Tour, this song was introduced with a scene playing through graphics of a short fight, punctuated by a gunshot that began the music, emphasizing the violence at the heart of this material (“Childish Gambino Live at The Deep Web Tour San Diego 3/3/14"). Click here to see this moment in the live performance.“Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That” - Sweet Brown
“Daddy I love him!” -Ariel
In the song “II. Worldstar,” Glover references internet material through sampling, using audio from fight videos on worldstarhiphop.com, The Little Mermaid, a phone conversation with Steve G. Lover, and lyrical references to: the viral video of Sweet Brown exclaiming “ain’t nobody got time for that!” Vine, “moshi moshi” memes, 1984, and more. Using internet language in this manner is a connective technique, attaching audience's understanding to the listening of the song. Tying together elements of violence, the internet, and fame, Glover comments on the danger of the internet’s proliferation of imagery, especially carnal, violent material. The song ends with a jazz riff and a repeated choral chant of “we don’t wanna be on Worldstar, / all we wanna be is a worldstar,” desiring stardom, while wary of the viral and carnal fame that can occur on the internet (“II. Worldstar”). This sonic dualism typifies the metamodern response to crisis, as jazz and unified chant responds to the harsh violence of Glover’s verses. Furthermore, the duality of the internet’s repercussions is emphasized in these lines, throughout the song as Glover employs juxtaposition between media representation, fame, and the internet’s cruel give-and-take of notoriety. At the end of his first verse, Gambino raps: “my n[****] hold it horizontal man, be professional,” referencing the amateur action of recording video with a phone held vertically, and therefore making video orientation unfavorable, as well as his own professional career in Hollywood.
The “Hold it Horizontal” Moment
During his live show, he would at this point leave the stage, go to a member of the audience who was holding their phone vertically, and turn it so that they would be following his directions (MigJustDoesIt). This is a peak moment of transmedia storytelling, as Glover emphasizes a need for effective communication (as video recording itself is a form of storytelling through the perspective of the recorder, and the practice of sharing this material online is the act of sharing a story). Moreover, this highlights Glover’s use of transmedia and interpersonal appeal to get audiences to apply messages to their real life, telling them to take pride in their actions. The fluidly cruel nature of the internet and fame as it appears in “II. Worldstar” plays off of the violent, sexual, and carnal nature of the content that makes worldstarhiphop.com notorious. Viral internet sensations experience a cruel fate, becoming notorious for a moment, typically without control of the event that makes them famous, and the brevity of this fame is harsh. In interviews, Glover has commented on internet sensation TerRio, saying “you can’t just laugh at TerRio,” (an African-American child whose dance moves made him a hit on Vine) because that isn’t responsible, because when consuming culture via the internet, “we can’t just eat the stuff we love. We all have to eat all of it and understand” the reality of the situation, in a metamodern sense (Browne). Lyrical allusions to internet culture weave connections amongst vastness of material; in Glover’s terms, eating all the stuff. In popular culture, Worldstar has become a “kind of street-fight battle cry,” captivating mass internet audiences with carnal appeal (Feldman). Furthermore, Worldstar is an especially racialized web locale, evidence that “no digital behavior exists in a deracialized vacuum,” and that “our culture frequently associates black people with excessive behaviors,” thus popularizing images of African-Americans that serve to reinforce racial stereotypes (Jackson). Glover notes the magnified threat felt by African-Americans due to racial prejudice and modern dangers as a heightened representation of metamodern existential dilemma.
The profound dangers to existence presented by both African-American identity and the internet age influence Glover’s world, and his conception of the existential dilemma facing a modern individual. On the heightened existential dilemma of the African-American, Glover states that, “especially with black kids, it’s like we’re getting shot in the streets, so what does this mean? What is this for?” (Browne). “Especially” reveals Glover’s stress on the unique nuance of African-American identity in shaping his existential deliberation. In the script, seeing a robbery, The Boy’s and his friends joke about police brutality:
MARCUS (in anchorman voice): Two men were arrested in an attempted robbery at an in-n-out burger today. (mumbling) Also some niggers ended up dead, we don’t know. This is news, people!
STEVE: After being frisked, the dead suspects somehow got guns and shot themselves in the head even though they were handcuffed and in the back of a tiny-ass squad car.
THE BOY: Police chief states: “no investigation needed.”
STEVE: “White people still safe!” (30)
This exchange exemplifies the use of humor as defense mechanism against the serious matter of police brutality, as well as metamodern art’s response to critical issues in real time. In light of the exposure of events that capture police brutality, especially in concern with the African-American community, Glover’s work reflects the danger and therefore heightened existential question facing African-Americans. His relation of stories concerning police misconduct involving himself are a further representation of this indictment against current practices, as in interviews, he tells of the police officers who prevented him from getting his disabled parents into his own concert, as they threatened and emasculated him through indication of force, approaching him in a non-violent context with “hand on hip,” seemingly only due to his race (Breakfast Club 2014; Rosenberg Radio; Browne). Glover also comments on the web’s use of racial stereotypes in crass humor as an amplifier of racial prejudice, through lyrical reference to “#N[*****]BeLike,” and “ain’t nobody got time for that,” as well as The Boy’s chat-room racial instigation, typing “fuck u n[******]” on a video on “HOTNEWHIPHOP.COM” and receiving immediate confrontational feedback (“IV. Sweatpants;” “I. Crawl;” Glover 4). The web acts as a pressure cooker for the external forces harming an individual, even as it provides the setting for movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and the means for sharing information that reveals institutional racism. 
If reading this, one feels the need for factual evidence of institutional racism or police brutality, please consult the following sources while conducting personal research: https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/on-views-of-race-and-inequality-blacks-and-whites-are-worlds-apart/ Similar to the pressures of racial identification, the age of the internet adds a layer to the existential dilemma faced by Glover and The Boy. According to psychologist Sherry Turkle, the internet provides the opportunity to “connect more and more. But in the process, we set ourselves up to be isolated,” a sentiment reflected by Glover’s statements in interviews: “we are more connected than ever, but I have never felt so alone” (Breakfast Club 2013). This metamodern sentiment of simultaneous connection and loneliness was echoed in the hotel notes Glover posted on Instagram, as he wrote of his feelings of being lost, then realized, “but I can’t be lonely though. Cause we’re all here. Stuck here” (Moore). This realization of interconnectivity amongst dislocation reveals a metamodern sense of being, finding solace and finality in the company and connection of experience with others. It is the combination of influences, of African-American identity and the internet, that shapes Glover’s existential dilemma, captured in the Because the Internet world by the symbolic use of the brown recluse spider.“Spider crawl in the corner,
brown recluse. So appropriate.”
The Brown Recluse, a spider indigenous to Southeast America (Glover himself was raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia), becomes a symbolic representation of the existential dilemma facing African-Americans in the age of the web (Vetter).
Appearing lyrically and in the script, the “brown recluse” symbolizes The Boy’s introvert nature and web presence (“II. No Exit”). The symbolic duality of web both as the spider’s trap and the internet captures the sense of danger created by the internet. The web simultaneously ensnares and connects. In this metamodern sense, the interconnectivity offered by the web is also a trap. Brown recluse spiders appear throughout the script, with a presence in The Boy’s room, and he initially is “mad” that “he can hear the spider. Just sitting there. Getting louder,” and appearing in the script’s video clip for “Dial Up” (46). Later, as The Boy attempts to commit suicide, his final thoughts concern the spider: “Where’d it go? Why would it leave? What about it’s parents? Won’t they be sad? What a bout hi s frien ds? W hat ab o u t all his s t uf f h o w wa s h esu p p ose d to ke e p all h is s …” (47).Thus, the spider represents the center of Glover’s existential crisis, magnified by his African-American identity and the pressures of the web, and the dissipating syntax reflects the loss of self, the separation caused by succumbing to these pressures. The merging of Glover’s identity with the spider is revealed in the transition from use of pronoun “it” to “he.” The attempted suicide coincides with “II. No Exit,” and the narrative arc of the song from “3 AM, stare at the ceiling murder the feeling, / spider crawl in the corner, brown recluse” to “I’m in a good mood, so good I’mma kill that spider,” and devolving into “look at the recluse, look at the rec-” reveals the interior thought devolution into suicide. “3 AM” references an Eminem track by that name, playing off of the murderous sentiment conveyed in that song, and the seeming paradox of “good mood” and killing the spider, and thus the self, reveals a metamodern sense of acknowledging death’s proximity, whether or not life seems secure and/or pleasurable (“3 AM”). This is reflected in Glover’s statements in interviews that “I could kill myself like, right now, if I wanted to, it’s not that hard,” as well as the notes he posted to Instagram (The Breakfast Club 2013). Through the symbolism of the brown recluse, Glover captures a modern existential dilemma, faced especially by African-Americans under the accentuated racial prejudice fostered on the web. The Boy’s character acts as a universal applicator, Glover thus expands the scope of the modern existential crisis, spurring the metamodern response.