In theory, the long-awaited album that Donald Glover dropped earlier this month should’ve marked the end of a victory lap. He spent most of the year rounding the bases. His FX series “Atlanta’’ broke ground in television, framing the black millennial experience in a universe both real and surreal. He landed a role as Lando Calrissian in the upcoming “Star Wars’’ film. He pulled off a three-day concert/camping trip in Joshua Tree where no phones were allowed and later released virtual-reality video of the performance. In every category, he essentially ran the table.

If his third solo album under the “Childish Gambino’’ moniker had been another step in the evolution of a rapper who got his name from a Wu-Tang name generator, no one would’ve complained.

Instead, the album and the artist seen in it emerged as something completely different. On “Awaken, My Love!’’ Glover is completely immersed in funk. The album is a trip through the cosmic soundscapes laid out decades ago by George Clinton, James Brown, and Sly Stone.

For some, it was another brilliant body of work. For some others, Glover’s sharp sonic detour was a head-scratcher. “Why not bring some levity to funk in 2016?’’ asked hip-hop tastemaker magazine Complex. “That worked for Bruno Mars on his recent album of retro R&B, ‘24K Magic.’ ’’

On the one hand, the enjoyability — and success — of Bruno Mars’s flirtation with funk is undeniable. He struck gold two years ago when he hooked up with Mark Ronson on the retro-pop science experiment “Uptown Funk.’’ That song was downloaded more than 12 million times, streamed nearly a billion times, viewed on Vimeo nearly two billion times and spent 14 straight weeks atop the Hot 100.

Nearly everyone on the planet had the words “Don’t believe me, just watch’’ stuck in their heads. But the song that carried it there was not funk in the traditional sense. What the people wanted was watered down, easily digestible jams with twinkly synths, swinging horns, and a danceable downbeat. It was if they were saying, “You know how I like my funk? Bastardized.’’

True funk was a protest as much as it was a party. It was high out of its mind but aware of its political surroundings. It pushed the envelope sonically and pushed buttons socially. It was infatuated with technology and terrified by it at the same time. It was wild clothes and wild ideas. It mixed major and minor chords in a beaker and let them boil over. It was the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam.

Here’s the inevitably unfun sticking point: “Uptown Funk’’ is not actually funk. It’s pop wearing funk like a dashiki.

The pop-funk sound has gradually been moving its way into the forefront for the past few years. There was Daft Punk’s left turn in 2013, inspired by Pharrell Williams, with “Get Lucky.’’ Williams also struck gold when he lifted Marvin Gaye’s 1977 smash “Got to Give It Up’’ for Robin Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines’’ that year (for which he ended up paying the Gaye estate a cool $7.4 million).

But each of those songs seemed to follow a paint-by-numbers process. They felt more like novelties than a true revival. Meanwhile, genuine funk-based artists bubbled beneath the mainstream, making music that sounded less programmed than lived-in. Adrian Younge had long been cultivating a sound fit for a blaxploitation score, which made his work this year on the soundtrack for the Netflix series “Luke Cage’’ fitting. When the Canadian outfit BadBadNotGood wasn’t backing up Frank Ocean, they were laying out smooth funk landscapes on albums like 2014’s “III’’ and this year’s “IV.’’ Menahan Street Band’s take on funk on its 2008 release “Make the Road by Walking’’ has been cribbed repeatedly by artists from Jay Z (“Roc Boys’’) to Kid Cudi (“Solo Dolo’’).

If people don’t know what to make of “Awaken, My Love!’’ maybe it’s because Glover is plowing similar ground. When he first introduced himself as Childish Gambino, he was doing his best impressions of the hottest rappers at the time — Kanye West and Lil’ Wayne. But on “Awaken,’’ he’s largely ignoring the Top 40. He’s taking a deep dive into a sound that’s been glammed up in revisionist memory, but not necessarily appreciated.

There are hallmarks from funk’s peak throughout. On “Zombies,’’ Glover’s harnessing Rick James’s gooey vocals from “Mary Jane.’’ On “Redbone,’’ he’s reincarnating the unmistakable bass from Bootsy Collins’s “I’d Rather Be With You.’’ On “Stand Tall,’’ subtle hints of Shuggie Otis’s “Strawberry Letter 23’’ linger behind the beat.

But the album’s most obvious influence — sonically, thematically, and in its cover art — is the unapologetic funk bomb that George Clinton and Funkadelic dropped off in 1971, “Maggot Brain.’’ It’s a landmark now, but at the time of its release, people thought it was a mess. “Who needs this [expletive]?’’ wrote Vince Aletti, reviewing “Maggot Brain’’ in Rolling Stone. “Funk for funk’s sake becomes merely garbage.’’ It never cracked the pop charts’ Top 100.

“Maggot Brain,’’ and Funkadelic’s work in general, became the backbone for hip-hop. It’s the manic screeching in Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise.’’ It’s the spiritual refrain in Dr. Dre’s “Let Me Ride.’’ It’s the hauntingly forward-looking conscience on OutKast’s “Synthesizer,’’ on which Andre 3000’s verse is essentially a screenplay for a dozen different episodes of the techno-terror Netflix series “Black Mirror.’’

In 2016, Glover’s staring down the real-life fruition of OutKast’s 18-year-old visions. America’s at its most divisive, and divided. An election was essentially decided on social media. Body cameras aren’t on the technological wish list but a necessity in law enforcement. Virtual reality headsets aren’t a goofy, clunky cartoon concept: They’re a functional retail product.

On “Awaken,’’ Glover keeps his lyrics simple and uses the sound to sort through some of the questions that funk asked years ago. On the cohesively chaotic “Riot,’’ the few words Glover musters are painfully disenchanted: “No good fighting/world, we’re out of captains/Everyone just wants a better life/They tried to kill us/Love to say they feel us/But they won’t take my pride.’’

It’s probably telling that the last major artist to dive so deeply into funk was Kendrick Lamar, on 2015’s universally praised “To Pimp a Butterfly.’’ Even he faced some raised eyebrows, from those who assumed this sonic detour meant he’d gone pop. He explained at the time, “This is not that. This is black. This is soul.’’

Glover is just as unapologetic about his muses for “Awaken.’’ It isn’t funk for pop’s sake. It’s funk for the sake of rediscovery.

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.