Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino is the stage name used by Donald McKinley Glover Jr., an American musician, actor and comedian. He also records as mcDJ when working as a DJ and producer of electronic music.

Early life and comedy work

Glover is born at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He is raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. He graduates from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2006 with a degree in dramatic writing. Before and alongside his music career, he works in comedy and television, first gaining attention through Derrick Comedy. The sketch group includes Dominic Dierkes, Meggie McFadden, DC Pierson and Dan Eckman, and writes and stars in the feature film Mystery Team, released in 2009.

With support from Tina Fey, Glover is hired at the age of 21 as a writer for 30 Rock. He writes for the series from 2006 to 2009 and makes occasional cameo appearances. He also plays Troy Barnes on the NBC sitcom Community. In 2010, he airs a stand-up special on Comedy Central and later records the one-hour special Weirdo, which airs on Comedy Central in November 2011. He receives the Rising Comedy Star award at the Just for Laughs festival in 2010 and is featured in Gap’s 2010 holiday advertising campaign.

Recording career

As Childish Gambino, Glover releases a run of independent projects before signing to Glassnote Records in 2011. His stage name comes from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator. The early releases include Sick Boi in 2008, Poindexter in 2009, the mixtapes I Am Just a Rapper and I Am Just A Rapper 2 in 2010, and the album Culdesac, which is made available in 2010 after a short delay. He later says that on Sick Boi and Poindexter he feels he has to hide behind gimmicks, while later work addresses more personal subjects including family, schoolyard bullying, troubled romantic relationships, suicidal thoughts and alcoholism. He also disowns his 2005 album The Younger I Get.

After announcing the EP EP in 2011, he releases tracks including “Be Alone” and “Freaks and Geeks,” and puts out the project through his website. “Freaks and Geeks” is directed by Dan Eckman, and the song later appears in an Adidas commercial featuring Dwight Howard. Glover often makes his music available as free downloads through his website.

Albums, mixtapes and collaborators

His debut studio album for Glassnote is Camp, released in 2011. The album includes the single “Bonfire,” and he works on it with film composer and frequent collaborator Ludwig Göransson. He launches the IAMDONALD tour as a one-man live show combining rap, comedy and video segments, followed by the Sign-Up Tour and the Camp tour. During the CAMP tour, some dates are postponed after he fractures his foot while performing in Tampa, Florida.

In 2012, he releases the free mixtape Royalty, featuring guests including Schoolboy Q, Heems of Das Racist, Nipsey Hussle, Beck, Prodigy and his brother Steve G. Lover. Tracks released around the project include “Unnecessary,” “We Ain’t Them,” “Tell Me,” “Black Faces,” “Silk Pillow,” “One Up” and “Body.” “Body” does not appear on the mixtape. He also releases the video for “Fire Fly.”

His second studio album, Because the Internet, is completed in 2013 and released in December that year. The album includes “3005,” and he is nominated at the 2015 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Performance for the song. He later releases the joint project STN MTN / Kauai in 2014, consisting of a mixtape and an EP that continue the story told on Because the Internet. The Kauai EP includes “Sober,” which wins an mtvU Woodies award for Best Video Woodie in 2015.

Later releases and recognition

Glover’s third album, Awaken, My Love!, includes “Redbone,” which reaches number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 and gives him his first Grammy Award. In 2018, he releases “This Is America,” which debuts at number one on the Hot 100 and wins four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year. His fourth album, 3.15.20, is released in 2020.

Other work and collaborations

Outside music, Glover appears in projects connected with Spider-Man, including voicing an animated version of the character in Ultimate Spider-Man. He campaigns publicly for an audition for the role in The Amazing Spider-Man, but Andrew Garfield is cast instead. He also works on FX’s Atlanta, a music-themed series in which he stars, writes and executive produces, and he reduces his work on Community to appear only in the first five episodes of its fifth season.

He collaborates with Ubisoft to include his song “Crawl” in Far Cry 4. He also performs on Leona Lewis’s “Trouble,” which becomes his first UK top 10 single, peaking at number seven.