Dissect - BTI’s Secret Track: 3005 (Beach Picnic Version)

Episode Date: February 4, 2021

In one of the more creative pieces of the Because The Internet world, Donald Glover created a secret track that fans had to assemble by connecting various pieces of the world together, including passwords, computer coding, acapella tracks, and more. We unpack this process and examine the song itself. This episode is part of our larger dissection of “3005” that includes an analysis video, web guide, and standard episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Because the Internet by Childish Gambino with a special episode on one of the most innovative components of Glover's multimedia world, The Secret Track. In our last episode, we examined 2005, a song where Gambino and the boy cried out for connection. In the screenplay, the boy witnessed a wedding that reminded him of his failed relationships, and he questioned why he was unable to make any lasting, meaningful bonds.

At the end of this scene, the script instructs us to play a secret track, simply titled Number 9 and a half, coded. But at the time of BTI's initial release, the track was nowhere to be found. This left fans mystified. A secret track? Given that there was password-protected content on Gambino's website at this time, as well as his statements and interviews that asked his fans to learn to code, fans were convinced that the secret track lay hidden somewhere in the website.

It wasn't until nearly a year later when Gambino released the joint mixtape slash EP titled Stone Mountain Kauai, that fans had everything they needed to uncover the secret track. Glover tweeted that the last song on this project, 2005 Beach Picnic version, should help with the secret track. This song contains an alternate version of 3005's hook. But strangely, large portions of the song are instrumental, where the verses would typically go.

Shortly after Glover's tweet, Reddit user Pepsi 112 posted on the Donald Glover subreddit a file they had uncovered within the code of the online screenplay. It was an acapella track, meaning it contained just Glover's solo vocals. Young guy, what it is, how you live in a young thing and she sing, let me feed it up. See me out in my ride, want to key it up. He got a keyer, I got a be a. To uncover this track, Pepsi 112 replaced a piece of code that the website used to play each song in the online screenplay. The password or code this person inserted into the coding was Lemon Grab.

You might recall from our last episode, Lemongrab is a cartoon character on Adventure Time and was specifically referenced at the end of 2005's wedding scene in the screenplay. It was directly after this Lemon Grab reference that the secret track is instructed to be played, so Pepsi 112 smartly put two and two together to reveal the Acapella track. Next, another Reddit user, Zellets of Stock, suggested taking this file and placing it on top the aforementioned instrumental from Kauai. It filled the empty verse sections perfectly, and voila, the secret track had finally been discovered. Like the majority of BTI, this track is by Donnell

and Lever and Ludwig Gorensen. Given that it's a reinterpretation of 2005, we should look for similarities between the two. Both utilize a four-cord sequence that can be loosely viewed as inverses of each other. In the original 2005, the chord progression was a palindrome. The first chord moves up, up again, and then back down, and then back down to the first chord. So essentially, the progression rises and then falls. In the secret track, we see the opposite of this. It falls, then rises.

The first chord moves down, then down, then down. down again, then rises, and then rises again to the first chord. These same chords are used in the song's verses, played on a brassy synth patch that resembles the original 2005. And even though this track is significantly slower than the original, we find a similar drum pattern with that trademark busy snare. Vocally, the most obvious difference between the two hooks is Gambino's voice, which is pitched up higher than the original. Given the higher pitch of the hook, the happier tone, and Kauai's manipulation of sequencing,

will have to be vigilant about the use of time and Gambino's perspective as we move through the song. As we listen to the verses, we'll come to realize that the first verse is a flashback, while the second verse is a flash forward. Gambino fuses the past and future in a single song, reinforcing the thematic prevalence of infinity we observed in 2005, as well as Glover's surreal warping of time throughout the entire project. As Gambino begins describing a relationship, we note that his tone is much like the memories described at times on the song's shadows,

an aura of sunshine and rainbows. Young guy, what it is, how you live in a young thing and she sing, let me beat it up. See me out in my ride, want to key it up. You got a keyer, I got a bema, she got a fee her. Gambino, You want to ride up, I'm a styin' See me styling,

I'm a ride out, Hit the little way than we tried to the high. Gambino begins by speaking about himself in third person, rapping, Young God, what it is, how you live in. This positions the opening verse as a look backwards,

and the third person perspective plays with the construct of identity that Glover has manipulated throughout the entire project. This lyric also continues Gambino's train of thought from the previous track on Kauai. Conceptually, Gambino spoke about the idea that, quote, We are becoming God as a description of our movement and progress through history,

which we remember is the reason this song exists. Gambunas spoke about coding and interviews often, worked with WordPress and Black Girls Code to promote causes related to technology education, and explained to Complex Magazine, quote, coding is a beautiful thing. If there is a God, he definitely codes. There are fail safes in the world. world. That's code. I want kids to be coders. They can make their own worlds then. They don't need anybody

else. I love hearing those kids' ideas, all these kids on the internet. The excitement of making something, that's the spark of God, unquote. This concept was something Glover spoke about when thinking about the future. The idea of becoming God is a process, one that evolves as we create more and more. Glover grappled with the limitations on what can be created in the current environment and how increased freedom would lead to greater creation and connection. I feel like we all are, we are what we want to be. Like we can do that, but we have to work together. And I feel like right now, our generation, like me, like I know what I'm.

I'm fighting for real and I'm fighting for our quant to quantify our work. Gambino continues the secret track rapping about a woman who wants to have sex with him and claims himself superior to her man through a sequence of car references. He raps, he got a Kia, I got a Beamer, she got a Fiat, half Italian. she'd want to ride up on my stallion. This focus on cars as an innuendo for sex is something we heard in the worst guys, sweatpants, and Telegraph Avenue. After referencing the Italian car company Fiat to describe the woman's ethnicity,

he then says she wants to ride a stallion, a euphemism for sex that also nods to automobiles with stallion logos, such as Ford Mustang or the Italian Ferrari. Rhyming Italian and stallion is also a clear reference to the Rocky film franchise, whose main character was Rocky, the Italian stallion, Balboa. Given that this first verse is a flashback, this cinematic reference foreshadows the rocky conflict that will come for the lovers, a double entendre Gambino has used before to hint at a troubled couple.

Here on Camps track, LESTher, Gambino rapped, our relationship has gotten Sylvester Stallone, to point out that the relationship was getting rocky. After getting the girl to ride with him, Gambino continues the secret track describing them heading out on vacation. I'm a rideout, hit Lahui, then drive to the hideout. Lahui is the second largest town on the island of Kauai, a nod both to the title of the EP, as well as the setting for the Telegraph Avenue music video. It would appear that Gambino and his girl are headed to Paradise. G. That's the way that we live in. He fly her out every weekend because of thinking is different.

She dance around in the kitchen like da-da-da-da-da-da-no. You'll always be my baby. Ask me what we're doing. Yeah, you know that drive me crazy eyes. She want to ride the top way down. When I get her home, I'm going to lay that down. Gambino continues the verse rapping, that's the way that we live in. He fly her out every weekend because her thinking is different. Here Gambino swaps pronouns and perspectives again, moving from we to he and her, which reflects the song's rejection of traditional time and narrative. He's speaking about himself in the past while slipping into that perspective and remembers fondly the good times they had. He describes her dancing around in the kitchen and follows by humming Mariah Carey's You Always Be My Baby before referencing the song title by name.

Besides the simple love connection of this reference, Mariah Carey's song is also about a past love, that stuck with her, a parallel for Gambino reminiscing here on the secret track. Gambino is then briefly interrupted from the fun and bliss when the girl asks him about their relationship. He raps, ask me what we're doing, yeah, you know that drive me crazy. He's enjoying the fun and doesn't want to think about what or why they're doing anything, and it seems like she falls in line with this as the verse concludes. She want to ride with the top way down. When I get her home, I'm going to lay that down. After a repetition of the song's hook, I'll be it this time layered with more sounds at the beach, Gambino shifts perspectives this time to the future.

Gambino slows down and immediately establishes a new time, singing, In the Year 2005 and the World I Love is gone. He's speaking about the infinite time ahead of us captured in the original 2005. Gambino then asks us, do you know where we're headed, and then proceeds to envision our future. Gambino sings, I see now, I know love. I see everything. I know everything. I can do anything. This is a description of enlightenment, a state of hyper-connectedness. It seems in terms of the concept of becoming God, this future state is as close as you can get. Notably, the lyrics are stripped down to simple declarations,

indicative of clarity and awareness. Having reached this point, Gambino sings, I just want to sing, I just want to dance. I'm so free you know now. With freedom, Gambino finds purpose in song and dance, an enjoyment of passion, energy, and art. Gambino concludes this utopian verse singing, I can't help myself, oh my God, oh my God. I can't help myself refers both to the final words on BTI, please help me, while also noting that this sort of progress and enlightenment is only possible through connection and togetherness. When he sings, oh my God, he's again nodding to the concept of becoming God, that this euphoric state is in our future. This encloses yet another loop in the BTI narrative, as Gambino's first rap lyrics on this track were

Young God, speaking about himself in the past. Now envisioning the future, he sings, Oh my God, about himself. In the final iteration of the hook, we hear female voices go in and out, exclaiming joyfully amidst Gambino's singing in the beach picnic ambiance. Colored by the utopian verse that came before it, this rendition of the hook is void of any cynicism that might have been found in the original version. It's pleasant, joyous, and Gambino's promise to be with us until 2005 is one of commitment to connection, that we will all be there for each other, that will be there together until the end of time, and that we'll be able to realize blissful freedom. Conclusions. The Seeger track is the last song on Kauai, and in BTI fits in between

2005 and playing around before the party starts, which is the exact middle of the track list. We also know that 305 was the first single released for BTI. And so when considering all of this, we realize that 3,05 and its secret track remix are quite literally the beginning, middle, and the end. This falls in line with the manipulation of time and focus on infinity throughout the tracks. Given that the original 3,05 was the first single, it appears Gambino used the track as a form of outreach. It's the song he used to reach the widest audience in hopes of getting us to listen to the rest of the project. As covered 3,000, systematically in the song, it was a single connection with the hope of realizing more.

We consider this idea in tandem with Gambino's thoughts on how the music industry moves so quickly now and how we haven't adapted properly. An album, you can just rip it. Like, it's like, oh, there's like 11 good songs. Like this is good. I'll rip it, listen to it, and not care about it a week later. Right. Like, I was like, and I was talking about this yesterday, but like there was so much hype

about Drake's album and everybody was really excited. Rick's album and I listened to it and I was like this is a good album but it felt like it felt like it was here and then gone because people were just like oh I listened to it I did the thing I was supposed to do and now I'm done people aren't thinking that's the problem with I have no problem with things going fast but people are just like reacting and like and that's that's not how you live like I think that's just given the ever-moving landscape of the music industry today with social media turning its collective head to the next new project of the week the inclusion of a secret track and its realized released nearly a year after the initial drop of BTI,

expresses Glover's desire for the work to be explored over long periods of time, for a connection between the world and the audience to last. It's the same exact sentiment expressed in the song, unfolding in the real world as extended performance art, a reward for all the fans that took time to explore his world. Specifically, it rewarded those who took Gambino's advice on learning to code, which is something he talked about often during the BTI era. Aside from the aforementioned concept of coding as the frontier of creating and making new connections,

Gambino also explained that he wants people to be coding, quote, so they don't have to ask somebody to change something, I just feel like that's the language we should all be speaking, unquote. Besides the simple idea of coding languages, Gambino referring to how we speak in relation to code alludes to the practice of code switching. Code switching is the practice of altering our speech, such as our dialect, inflection, or language in order to address different audiences. For instance, we speak differently depending on who we're with.

Perhaps the way that we talk to our family is different than the way we speak to our friends, which is different than how we speak to our work colleagues, which is different than how we communicate online. The way we communicate is dictated by the interplay between ourselves, our audience, and our context, constantly changing to make connections. In this sense, learning to code is learning how to navigate all the different contexts that we communicate in, in order to make more effective connections and understand the variety of subjective perspectives that play in everything that we do. As a remix, a track embedded within the

code of other songs, which took fans finding and bringing multiple files together, the secret track is an emblem of relying on context. Our understanding of the song is colored by its place within the narrative, the multiple perspectives that it offers on love, and multiple places in time that it situates itself in. The joy and elation of love that Gambino feels and envisions for our future, that's something we're going to have to work for and towards together, just as uncovering the track itself required work, understanding of context and connection.