Artistry

Donald Glover
 Given how young and playful so much of
his work is on TV shows like “30 Rock” and
“Community,” it seems appropriate that
comedian and writer Donald Glover’s hip-
hop alter ego is named.

But in just five years, Glover has

become accomplished in Hollywood,
and his burgeoning rap career is
anything but a joke: although he
got his stage name from a Wu-
Tang name generator, he’s been
recording music for many years,
and is now releasing it officially via a
distribution deal with Glassnote
Records, home to indie darlings
like Phoenix, Mumford & Sons
and Two Door Cinema Club.

Donald McKinley Glover was born on
September 25, 1983, at Edwards Air Force
Base in California. Glover’s family moved to
Georgia when he was still very young and
was raised principally in the community of
Stone Mountain, about 20 miles northeast
of Atlanta. According to Glover, Stone
Mountain at that time was primarily a
white suburb and his family was one of the
only African American families in the area.
Glover’s father worked in a post office,
and his mother was a day-care manager.
Glover has a brother and a sister, and two
adopted siblings. His parents, both Jehovah’s
Witnesses, took in foster children for many
years, and Glover describes a household that
was at times chaotic.
In high school, Glover became involved in musicals
and plays. After high school, he attended New
York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and
graduated in 2006 with a degree in dramatic
writing. After graduation, he produced comedy
videos with former classmates who formed a
troupe called Derrick Comedy.
 Ludwig
Göransson
When Donald Glover first approached
producer and composer Ludwig Göransson
about his side project, Childish Gambino,
the two were working on the set of
Community. Together, they conceived of
a heady sound for Gambino
and, since 2010, they’ve
collaborated on seven
different projects. Over
time, Gambino’s sound
has shifted and
evolved like each
of their respective
careers.
With 2016’s Awaken
My Love!, Glover and
Göransson, inspired by
Parliament Funkadelic and
the black power music of
the ‘70s, set out in a new
direction with Göransson
again serving as a producer
and writer for every song
on the album. In November,
they earned four Grammy
nominations for their work,
including Album of the Year
and Record of the Year for
“Redbone.” Ahead of the
awards ceremony, Ludwig
Göransson spoke to The
FADER about his work with
Glover and the upcoming
score he composed for
Black Panther.
 Awaken,
My
Love

Inspiration
Though pettiness is widely
regarded as a negative trait, it
can often become a powerful
motivator. Just ask Childish
Gambino. “Did you ever tap
into something that you feel
is kinda bad to, like—it’s in you
to win,” he said in a clip shared by
UNINTERRUPTED. “Because I struggle
with that. I am naturally, like, petty. Like,
extremely petty. Awaken, My Love was literally
because somebody was like, ‘Oh, he can’t make
a hit.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, not only will I make
a hit, I won’t make a video for it.’
Because
The
Internet
How did it come about ?
2013 was a loaded year for rap music. It brought us
Drake’s Nothing was the Same, Chance the Rapper’s
Acid Rap, A$AP Rocky’s Long.Live.A$AP, and Kanye
West’s worst album.
In addition to these classics (as well as Yeezus),
was Childish Gambino’s sophomore album Because
The Internet, one of the most in depth releases
seen in recent history. It came complete with
a 75 page screenplay, a short film on YouTube,
and a litany of cryptic tweets hinting at the
true meanings of the 16 track experience. For
a lengthy period of time, fans and listeners
speculated on the true meaning of this deep and
complex production, and I too have spent many
hours listening and analyzing in order to come to a
conclusion as to what exactly is trying to be conveyed
in this dense auditory experience.
From all of my analysis and obsessive
combing through of the lyrics, it seems
to me that Because the Internet’s
meaning is right in the title. It is a
concept album, about the worst
and best parts of living in the
Internet age, about the internet
itself.
 KAUAI

Newer Alterations
Less than a year after album ‘Because The Internet‘, Childish Gambino gives
us ‘STN MTN/Kauai‘. A mixtape/EP that is part DJ Drama’s infamous ‘Gangsta
Grillz‘ series, and part a continuation of ‘Because The Internet‘. ‘STN MTN‘ (an
abbreviation of Stone mountain, a city in the state of Georgia) represents Atlanta,
Georgia’s bass heavy, trap sound. So this part of the project is the mixtape,
complete with Drama’s trademark pre-track mutterings and boasts. The ‘Kauai‘
side features some stream of consciousness poetry from Jaden Smith (as ‘The
Boy’) and focuses more on the poppier aspects of Gambino’s music.

From start to finish the project has well produced, popular and classic instrumentals. Gambino
is a solid rapper, and is versatile with seemingly endless flows. But the project falls apart once
you start to scratch beneath the surface. Gambino tries too hard. ‘Camp‘ had him discussing
the relationship between he and his cousin breaking down, and how he later went on to deal
drugs due to lack of a male role model in his life, ‘STN MTN’ has Gambino boasting of this same
cousins drug dealing. It’s as if he’s trying to impress the cool kids. Gambino spends the entire
tape boasting of the same cliches he condemned on his previous albums, it doesn’t just come
off hypocritical, it rings completely untrue, and is incredibly forced.
 3.15.20

Recent Project
Donald Glover has striven for greatness ever since he invented his Childish
Gambino persona, and his astonishing new album, 3.15.20, has been a decade
in the making. He staked his claim as a feisty punchline rapper on his 2010 For nearly two years, fans have
Culdesac mixtape and 2011 debut studio album Camp, the latter of which eagerly awaited a full-length
earned a notorious 1.6 and a scorched-earth review from Pitchfork. Glover follow-up to “This Is America.”
graduated to A-list pop crossovers and multi-song suites on 2013’s Because Glover whet their appetites
the Internet, a sprawling concept album about the agony and ecstasy of with the two-song Summer
being Extremely Online. The 2014 mixtape/EP combo STN MTN/Kauai showed Pack in July of 2018, but it was
his propensity for the gritty Southern hip-hop of his Atlanta hometown and hardly the zeitgeist-capturing
his burgeoning interest in alternative R&B, as evidenced by breakout single
work of which he had proven
“Sober.” In 2016, Glover made his biggest stylistic departure yet, channeling the
psychedelic funk of George Clinton and Prince on “Awaken, My Love!”, which capable. With each subsequent
granted him his biggest hit to date with the impossibly catchy “Redbone.” But Childish Gambino album, Glover
“Redbone” merely foreshadowed the stratospheric success of 2018’s “This Is made vast strides, but there
America,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and propelled Glover remained a nagging sense that
from a musical auteur to a prophet who distilled the fury and pain of millions he had not yet reached his final
into one blistering, four-minute song. form.