Last summer, for the release of his ‘Summertime Magic’ single, Childish Gambino and RCA Records worked with Snapchat to create a series of geofenced lenses that were rolled out across 23 cities around the world.

The lens automatically popped up in the carousels of Snapchat where users could hear a clip of the track and see a 3D AR rendering of the word “Summertime” that could be added to the clips created by fans, with the goal being to get them to share it with their friends.

That obviously whetted Gambino’s appetite as he’s back with another AR-centric campaign – this time in collaboration with Google. He tested the water earlier in the year with a Playmoji version of himself in Playground (formerly AR Stickers), the augmented mode in Pixel cameras. And now they have created PHAROS AR, a multiplayer app.

“The experience begins with the opening of an AR portal,” says the Google blog on the partnership. “Walk through it to explore an augmented cave where you can find and interact with hidden glyphs while still being able to see out into the real world.”

By collecting the glyphs, users can progress through the imaginary world and they can play solo or collaboratively with friends. The PHAROS app was Android-only at launch, but an iOS version is in the pipeline.

This is as much a technical showcase for Google’s ARCore technology as it is promotion for Gambino’s music, but it is obviously only something a big act in combination with a big tech company could make happen. The tech company needs a famous name to attach it to and the famous name will happily let the tech company pick up the bill. One hand washes the other. But to Gambino’s credit, if he’s jumped on the AR bandwagon, at least he has stayed on it and tried out different things using the technology. In an age of “disposable tech marketing” (i.e. acts flirting with the latest hype to make them appear forward-thinking), that has to count for something.