Glover, Jr was born at Edwards Air Force Base, California and raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia. His mother, Beverly (Smith, is a retired daycare provider, and his father, Donald, Sr, is a retired postal worker. His parents also served as DeKalb County foster parents for 14 years. He was raised a Jehovah's Witness. He was voted "Most Likely to Write for The Simpsons" in his High School yearbook. Glover, Jr graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in dramatic writing in 2006.
From 2006 to 2009, Glover, Jr was a writer for the NBC series 30 Rock where he also had occasional cameo appearances. He was presented the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the third season. Glover, Jr's stage name, Childish Gambino, came from the Wu-Tang Clan's name generator. On June 5, 2008, he released an independent album, titled Sick Boi. Glover, Jr would then become a member of the sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy, along with Dominic Dierkes, Meggie McFadden, DC Pierson, and Dan Eckman. The group wrote and starred in a feature-length film, Mystery Team, released in theaters in 2009.
On September 17, 2009, Childish Gambino released the independent album Poindexter. A pair of mixtapes, titled I Am Just a Rapper and I Am Just A Rapper 2 were released, in close succession in 2010. Robert Scahill added his producing expertise helping with the majority of the tracks. The track listings for those mixtapes consist of the name of the song "he" raps, followed by the song he raps over. His second album, Culdesac, was set to be released on July 2, 2010, but a couple of last minute additions caused the album to be delayed for a day. The album was made available on July 3. Glover, Jr has stated in interviews that on Sick Boi and Poindexter he felt he had to hide behind gimmicks, such as pink hoodies, but with his subsequent projects, he has touched on more personal subject matter, including family, schoolyard bullying, troubled romantic relationships, suicidal thoughts and alcoholism. He has disowned his 2005 album, The Younger I Get, as the too-raw ramblings of what he calls a "decrepit."
Glover, Jr's stand-up special aired on Comedy Central on March 19, 2010. In May 2010, a fan suggested Glover, Jr for the role of Peter Parker in the then-upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man film, encouraging his supporters to retweet the hashtag "#donald4spiderman". The campaign, originally started to see how far social networking could carry a message, quickly gained a large following. The call for Glover to be allowed to audition for the role was supported by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee. Glover, Jr was not awarded an audition and the role instead went to Andrew Garfield. He would later reveal that he was never contacted by anyone from Sony Pictures for the role. Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, who announced an African-American version of Spider-Man a year later, said he had conceived of the character before Glover, Jr's campaign went viral. Bendis gave credit to Glover for influencing the new hero's looks for Spider-man after seeing him dressed as Spider-Man on Community (a nod to the campaign), Bendis said, "I saw him in the costume and thought, 'I would like to read that book.'" Glover, Jr would later voice this incarnation of Spider-Man on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.
Glover, Jr received the Rising Comedy Star award at the Just for Laughs festival in July 2010. Glover, Jr was featured in Gap's 2010 Holiday ad campaign. He DJs and produces electronic music under the moniker "mcDJ" (pronounced "M-C-D-J"). His music is often made available for free download via his website.
On December 1, 2010, Glover, Jr released the first track off of his EP titled "Be Alone". He released the next track, "Freaks and Geeks", as well as a five-song track list, on February 11, 2011. On February 25, Glover, Jr released the dates for the IAMDONALD tour and also his very first music video for "Freaks and Geeks". The music video was shot by Dan Eckman, the director of the Derrick Comedy troupe. This song was later used in an Adidas commercial featuring Dwight Howard. On March 8, 2011 Glover, Jr released the EP via his official website.
On March 16, 2011, Glover, Jr hosted the mtvU Woodie Awards held live at South By Southwest. On March 24, 2011, Glover, Jr taped his one-hour comedy special Weirdo for Comedy Central; it aired on November 19.
Glover, Jr appeared at the 2011 Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 9 in the 'This Tent' as Childish Gambino and June 11 at 'The Comedy Theater' with Bill Bailey performing stand up. Comedy Central streamed the comedy live on their website.
On May 4, 2011, in an interview with TheHipHopUpdate, Gambino revealed that he was working on an LP, to be released in September. On July 25, 2011, Glover, Jr announced that his new album would be titled Camp. On October 8, during his Orlando, Florida concert, he announced Camp would be released on November 15, 2011. Glover, Jr worked with friend and film composer Ludwig Göransson on the debut album. On August 20, 2011, at the Los Angeles Rock The Bells concert, he gave an interview to AllHipHop.com, and he announced to the crowd that he had signed with Glassnote Records. On September 20, his first official single, "Bonfire", was released.
The IAMDONALD tour made 24 stops in 34 days, beginning with Ames, Iowa, on April 16, and finishing with Minneapolis on May 19. In between, this included stops at music venues in Las Vegas, Houston, Washington, and Atlanta. The tour was a one-man live show that consisted of rap, comedy, and video segments.
The Sign-Up Tour was Glover, Jr's next pre-album tour. He visited 11 cities over the course of 38 days in October and November 2011. Chidlish G made a website for the tour called Camp Gambino on November 19, four days after his album released. The tour featured special guest Danny Brown and made 20 stops during the course of 32 days along a dates in California in December. On March 14, 2012, several dates on the CAMP tour were postponed due to a fractured foot Childish suffered on March 10, while performing in Tampa, Florida. The tour began in Austin, Texas on April 5 and ended August 10 in Hollywood, California.
On January 11, 2012, Childish Gambino announced on his website that a new mixtape would be coming out soon. On April 2, he released a new song, "Eat Your Vegetables", through his website. On May 14, Funkmaster Flex premiered "Unnecessary," featuring Schoolboy Q. On May 16, Gambino released "We Ain't Them" through his website, produced by himself and frequent collaborator Ludwig. On May 22, Glover, Jr appeared on Das Racist's radio show "Chillin' Island" where he premiered a new song, "Tell Me," which featured Himanshu Suri, aka Heems from Das Racist. On May 26, Glover released "Black Faces", featuring Nipsey Hussle and produced by Boi-1da. On May 30, he released a third track, "Silk Pillow," featuring Beck and produced by both Glover, Jr and Beck. On June 25, he revealed that the mixtape was to be released on July 4, 2012. On June 26, Glover, Jr premiered another new track, on Sway in the Morning (on Shade 45), entitled "One Up," featuring his brother, Steve G. Lover. That same day, he stated that the mixtape would be titled Royalty despite previous statements that it would not be called that. On July 4, 2012, he released Royalty for free via digital download. On July 7, 2012, Gambino released the track, "Body," featuring Prodigy, which did not make the cut for the mixtape. On July 24, 2012, he released the music video for "Fire Fly" through his VEVO account on YouTube.
On August 21, 2012, BBC Radio 1 premiered Leona Lewis' new song, "Trouble" off her upcoming album Glassheart, which features Childish Gambino. The song was available for purchase via iTunes on October 7, and peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart the following week, making it his first UK top 10 single. On November 4, 2012 Ludwig Göransson said in an interview with Portable that he and Gambino were in his studio coming up with new ideas for the next album which was to be "bigger" and "with more people involved."
In 2013, Glover, Jr signed on to create a music-themed show for FX titled Atlanta in which he will star, write, and executive produce. Consequently, he decided to reduce his work for NBC, and only appears in the first five episodes of Community's 13-episode fifth season. Although many TV stations were interested in picking up his half-hour comedy, he ultimately picked FX due to their willingness to work around his touring schedule.
On October 6, 2013, he announced on Twitter that his second studio album was completed. He further announced this at Homecoming Week at Penn State University, stating “I got a new album coming out soon, so this is the last time we’re gonna play a lot of this shit.” On October 8, 2013, he announced its title as Because the Internet and revealed that it would be released in December 2013. On October 21, 2013, Glover, Jr released the first single "3005", and announced a release date for the album as December 10, 2013. On February 15, 2014, the rapper launched his Deep Web Tour in the UK. On February 27, Childish Gambino was scheduled to begin the United States portion of his tour with a gig at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. On June 6, 2014, RIAA certified Heartbeat Gold - making it Glover's first certification, and then on July 18, 2014, RIAA also certified 3005 Gold, making it Glover's second certification.
On October 2, 2014, he released a new mixtape titled STN MTN, and the next day he released an EP titled Kauai. The mixtape and the EP follow the story that was last told in Because The Internet and are meant to be a joint project instead of separate projects.
On October 10, 2014, Ubisoft revealed that they had collaborated with Glover, Jr to incorporate his song, "Crawl" into Far Cry 4.
On December 5, 2014 Glover, Jr was nominated for two Grammy Awards. He was a contender for Best Rap Album for Because The Internet (Glassnote Records) and Best Rap Performance for his single, “3005.”
On March 21, 2015 Glover, Jr won an mtvU Woodies Award for Best Video Woodie for the song "Sober" from the Kauai EP.
As of February 2016, Because the Internet has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping over 500,000 copies.
Glover's third album, Awaken, My Love!, spawned the single "Redbone", which peaked at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually earned him his first Grammy Award. In 2018, Glover released "This Is America", which debuted at number-one on the Hot 100, and won four Grammy Awards, including for Song and Record of the Year.[13] Glover's fourth album, 3.15.20, was released in 2020.[14]
Do or Die
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Flyer than Peter Pan when I'm pushin' that morphio
That stone out in CEO, wishin' that you was me
Girls on the tour bus, keep that ratio two or three
Fly as I want, A-Town put 'em up
East side till I die, Like we don't give a fuck
Keep your mouth so shut, talk is cheap
'Bino been here, y'all been sleep
Fuck the rest, we've been chosen
Keepin' up with these Joneses
Still stunt with these hoes-es
So street like Elmo, so street like Elmo
'Bino ain't the coldest Man, you funny like my elbow
Always on some other shit, stupid like my type of rich
Damn, what kind of life is this? I'm driven like some licenses
Let they head nod when the beat go in
I'mma wait till the beat go in
You so sophisticated
Shout out to those who hated
Kill a rapper, try to spit at me, that's suicide
Gambino forever, and Royalty is do or die
I'mma wait till the beat go in
Shotgun, blast that when I pass through
When I do things in that UK, and I fucks mane with that Flux mane
Bino flow so honest, your check ain't got no commas
But I ain't got no worries like Adele my baby mama
I'm blown off that indo, blown off that indo
Told y'all I would blow up that shit happened like I said so
You see it, I got it
I want it, I buy it
I do it, you tryin'
This yo girl? You lyin'
Let they head nod when the beat go in
I'mma wait till the beat go in
You so sophisticated
Shout out to those who hated
Kill a rapper, try to spit at me, that's suicide
Gambino forever, and Royalty is do or die
I'mma wait till the beat go in
I'mma wait till the beat go in
Let they head out when the beat go in
I'mma wait till the beat go in
The opening lines of the song "Do or Die" by Childish Gambino feat. Flux Pavilion showcases the rapper's confidence and swagger. He likens himself to being "cooler than Coolio" and "flyer than Peter Pan," boasting about his studio time and the attention he receives from women on his tour bus. The group mentality of "East side till I die" and "Gambino forever" instills a sense of loyalty and camaraderie among his team, while indirectly dissing those who underestimate his abilities. He advises others to keep their mouths shut and not waste their words in cheap talk or criticism, as his success speaks for itself.
The chorus of the song, "Let they head nod when the beat go in, I'mma wait till the beat go in" reflects the importance of waiting for the right moment and timing. It suggests that one should not rush into things and instead wait for the opportune time to make their move. The lyrics also touch upon the theme of success being a result of hard work and dedication, and how nothing in life comes easy. The line "Royalty is do or die" gets at the idea that maintaining a high-level of success is a constant battle that requires unwavering commitment.
Overall, "Do or Die" portrays Childish Gambino as a confident and dominant figure in the rap game. He isn't afraid to speak his mind, and advocates for hard work and patience in his pursuit of success.
Line by Line Meaning
Cooler than Coolio, stay in that studio
I am very cool and remain in the recording studio to make music
Flyer than Peter Pan when I'm pushin' that morphio
I am very fly when using drugs called morphio. This is similar to how Peter Pan can fly
That stone out in CEO, wishin' that you was me
As a musician, I am successful and wealthy. You might wish you had my life
Girls on the tour bus, keep that ratio two or three
I have multiple girls on my tour bus at a time with a ratio of two or three girls per guy
Fly as I want, A-Town put 'em up
I have the freedom to be as fly as I want, and represent my home of Atlanta by putting it up
East side till I die, Like we don't give a fuck
I represent the East side of Atlanta until I die and don't care what others think
Keep your mouth so shut, talk is cheap
It's better to keep quiet because talking doesn't always mean much
'Bino been here, y'all been sleep
I've been here making music for a while, while others are just starting to notice
'Bino hot and we know this
I am currently popular and well-liked, and everyone knows this
Fuck the rest, we've been chosen
I believe I am the best and have been chosen to succeed
Keepin' up with these Joneses
I am focused on competing with others, similar to the phrase 'keeping up with the Joneses'
Still stunt with these hoes-es
I continue to show off and impress girls who are only interested in me for my fame and success
So street like Elmo, so street like Elmo
I am as street as the character Elmo from Sesame Street
'Bino ain't the coldest Man, you funny like my elbow
I may not be the best, but you are still not as cool as me. This is similar to saying 'you're funny, but not really'
Always on some other shit, stupid like my type of rich
I am always doing something unique and interesting, and my wealth is so great that it seems crazy to some
Damn, what kind of life is this? I'm driven like some licenses
I am amazed by the life I live, and I am motivated to succeed like someone who is driven by their driver's license
Let they head nod when the beat go in
I want people to nod their heads to the beat when they hear my music
I'mma wait till the beat go in
I will wait until the right moment to start rapping and let the beat settle in first
You so sophisticated
You are very refined and elegant
Shout out to those who hated
I acknowledge and thank those who have hated on me in the past
Kill a rapper, try to spit at me, that's suicide
If you try to compete with me in the rap industry, you will fail miserably
Gambino forever, and Royalty is do or die
I will always represent and stand by my stage name 'Gambino', and my group 'Royalty' is very important to me
Shotgun, blast that when I pass through
I ride shotgun in cars and blast music when passing through
When I do things in that UK, and I fucks mane with that Flux mane
When I go to the UK, I collaborate with Flux Pavilion, and we make music together
Bino flow so honest, your check ain't got no commas
My style of rapping is very honest and straightforward. You might not earn enough money to see commas on your paycheck like I do
But I ain't got no worries like Adele my baby mama
I don't have any worries like Adele, who is famous for her music and has a child
I'm blown off that indo, blown off that indo
I am high off of a drug called 'indo'
Told y'all I would blow up that shit happened like I said so
I promised that I would become successful, and that's exactly what happened
You see it, I got it
If you see something, I probably have it. I am very wealthy
I want it, I buy it
If I want something, I can buy it because I have the money to do so
I do it, you tryin'
I accomplish my goals, while you are just attempting to do so
This yo girl? You lyin'
If you say that a girl is your girlfriend, you are lying
Let they head out when the beat go in
I want people to really get into the beat and groove along with it
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CIAN CIARAN, DAFYDD IEUAN, GRUFF RHYS, GUTO PRYCE, HUW BUNFORD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@mdombro69
This song still slaps in 2023
@Friendslam3
2 months out from 2024, I'll still be bodying Gambino's verse
@jaycadillacdippin544
@@Friendslam3lmao crazy!❤
@PreludeDude
Black dude's still slapping his head with his wristwatch on Xmas Eve 2023
@JustBE97
2024 NOWWWW
@JNewt001
"Hey flux do me a favor and never close your mouth"
"Got it."
@emmaekmoono
Lmao
@Xplodee
I still feel butterflies, Everytime i feel this comment.
@jamiemarshall125
Oh shit 😂 killed me
@gusgus420
Lmaaoooo