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]
Extraordinary
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Look around, this ain't what ordinary gets ya
I ain't your ordinary nigga
Look around, this ain't what ordinary gets ya
Gam-B, the one like Neo
You didn't see it coming
I'm C-P30
Or better yet Anakin
When it comes to lightsaber's that I'm handlin
I used to be king of the whack look
Now I stay king of the mac book
Yes mac book,where you write your numbers down
Yeah boy, I got girls in and out of town
You got it wrong like saying OJ;IJ
Stop the rumors
Asian girls don't got sideways
I gotta fuck every shade of latte
I gotta flow like my mouth to Kanye's
These niggas think that I'm playing, I ain't saying nothing
I'll fuck your girl on the burner
I'm so top stuffing
You can't stop nothing, I'm the juggernaut
That's why your B's sweet on me like I'm butterscotch
Yeah we run a lot
Boy the track runners here
I'm Elroy we jet sun out the atmosphere
Let me make it clear
I'm your inner fear
And I'm taking over,please don't interfere
Uhhhh I'm the streets desire
Your getting too old man, please retire
Don't make me carry you like I'm liar liar
Bring the heat like a monster, I'm Elmo's fire
I'm too busy spittin shit with a socialite
I'm too busy sittin bitch with some model types
Yes sir my girl's look like Rihanna twice
With some packed bags, yeah, they ain't going home tonight
Get your camera phone, prove ya seen me
Or else you'll be with friends like "Please believe me!"
I'm all that, I'm Kel and Kenan
Nigga, I come hard like I'm filled with semen
These rappers bore me
Gun talk with black clothes
Y'all let me know when y'all let 1998 go
Y'all niggas scared to grow
I'm never scared to go
Anywhere that's new, I go outside, y'all niggas stay at home
But that's alright dude
I'm a special guy
Y'all been wanting to rap since you were ankle high
And I've been wanting to rap since like what, 05?
Do the math man, how are you one of the best alive?
Gam-B, yes me, best out there
Trying to get universal like healthcare
So fresh, so clean, like a new pair
When you get to the top what you do there?
The opening lines of Extraordinary are a bold statement about Childish Gambino's unique status. He declares that he is not an ordinary person and warns that average efforts simply won't cut it. Gambino then uses a range of pop culture references to bolster his claim, likening himself to Neo (from The Matrix), C-3PO, and Anakin Skywalker (both from Star Wars). He points out that he used to be considered "king of the whack look," but has since become "king of the mac book," referencing his successful music career. Gambino seems to relish his wealth and influence, boasting about the girls he has around him and his seemingly limitless resources.
The second verse of the song begins with Gambino taking aim at other rappers, claiming that they bore him and lack the creativity to keep up with his own approach to music. He refers to outdated trends, like gun talk with black clothes, and encourages other artists to embrace new sounds and styles. Gambino highlights his willingness to explore new territory through his music, describing himself as a "special guy" who has had aspirations to rap since 2005. The final line of the track raises questions about what Gambino will achieve with his success, asking listeners, "When you get to the top what you do there?"
Line by Line Meaning
I ain't your ordinary nigga
I am not an average person.
Look around, this ain't what ordinary gets ya
Being ordinary will not get you far in life.
Gam-B, the one like Neo
I am like Neo from The Matrix.
You didn't see it coming
You were not expecting me.
Reverse Miss Cleo
I can see the future and change it.
I'm C-P30
I am like the robot character C-3PO from Star Wars.
Or better yet Anakin
I am like the character Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars.
When it comes to lightsaber's that I'm handlin
I am skilled in using lightsabers.
I used to be king of the whack look
I used to have a bad style.
Now I stay king of the mac book
Now, I dominate the music industry from my computer.
Yes mac book,where you write your numbers down
I use my computer to write my music and manage my finances.
Yeah boy, I got girls in and out of town
I have relationships with women in different places.
You got it wrong like saying OJ;IJ
You are mistaken, like thinking OJ and IJ are the same thing.
Stop the rumors
Please stop spreading false information about me.
Asian girls don't got sideways
Asian women's eyes are not always slanted.
I gotta fuck every shade of latte
I have sex with women of different skin colors, including latte shades.
I gotta flow like my mouth to Kanye's
I am a skilled rapper like Kanye West.
These niggas think that I'm playing, I ain't saying nothing
People doubt my skills, but I am not going to respond to their criticism.
I'll fuck your girl on the burner
I will have sex with your girlfriend on the stove.
I'm so top stuffing
I am confident in my abilities.
You can't stop nothing, I'm the juggernaut
You cannot prevent me from succeeding.
That's why your B's sweet on me like I'm butterscotch
That is why many women are attracted to me.
Yeah we run a lot
I am very active and always on the move.
Boy the track runners here
I am ready to race.
I'm Elroy we jet sun out the atmosphere
I am like Elroy Jetson from The Jetsons, flying into space.
Let me make it clear
Let me explain this to you.
I'm your inner fear
I represent the things you are scared of.
And I'm taking over,please don't interfere
I am dominating and I do not want anyone to interfere with my success.
Uhhhh I'm the streets desire
I am what people in the streets desire.
Your getting too old man, please retire
You are too old to keep up with me, retire from the music industry.
Don't make me carry you like I'm liar liar
I do not want to have to push you like in the movie Liar Liar.
Bring the heat like a monster, I'm Elmo's fire
I bring a lot of energy and passion to my music.
I'm too busy spittin shit with a socialite
I am collaborating with famous, influential people.
I'm too busy sittin bitch with some model types
I spend a lot of time with attractive women.
Yes sir my girl's look like Rihanna twice
My girlfriends are very beautiful, resembling Rihanna.
With some packed bags, yeah, they ain't going home tonight
My female companions are staying with me tonight.
Get your camera phone, prove ya seen me
Take a picture of me to show your friends that you met me.
Or else you'll be with friends like "Please believe me!"
If you do not have proof of seeing me, your friends may not believe you.
I'm all that, I'm Kel and Kenan
I am the total package, like the characters Kel and Kenan from Kenan & Kel.
Nigga, I come hard like I'm filled with semen
I go at it with full force.
These rappers bore me
Other rappers are uninteresting to me.
Gun talk with black clothes
Talking about guns while wearing black clothing.
Y'all let me know when y'all let 1998 go
Let me know when you stop living in the past.
Y'all niggas scared to grow
You are afraid to evolve and move forward.
I'm never scared to go
I am not afraid of taking risks and trying new things.
Anywhere that's new, I go outside, y'all niggas stay at home
I am always exploring and trying new things, while others are comfortable staying home.
But that's alright dude
But that is okay, to each their own.
I'm a special guy
I am a unique and special individual.
Y'all been wanting to rap since you were ankle high
Others have been interested in rapping since they were very young.
And I've been wanting to rap since like what, 05?
I have been wanting to rap since 2005.
Do the math man, how are you one of the best alive?
Think logically, how can you be one of the best when you are not as skilled as me?
Gam-B, yes me, best out there
I am the best rapper out there.
Trying to get universal like healthcare
I am trying to become well-known worldwide, like healthcare.
So fresh, so clean, like a new pair
I am very clean and fresh like a new pair of clothes.
When you get to the top what you do there?
What do you do when you have achieved success?
Contributed by Andrew H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@TheSmokahontis
Gambino fuckin murked this Phil Collins sample
@grantneverland7117
+Grant Lester I agree Grant Lester
@DjTIMEJD
Philip Bailey too, cuh.
@narutodudeism
"Trying to get universal like health care". That line is so relevant today.
@stone1899
For morons it’s relevant
@torigiesbrecht2686
oldschool glover sounds like the sniffles
@nandrambalkissoon9201
yesssssssss true!!!!
@CarolynSaunders3
sick boi
@beowulf5419
Mmm, you should hear Sick Boi.
@whatdidyouexpectyouidiot
i heard the original song in the grocery store a few weeks ago and i almost screamed