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]
For Your Love Freestyle
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I am just a rapper gambino keep it jumping
These niggas don't know nothing
I keep a girl shaky like
Her pussy lips is krumping
It's that dude that don't say shit
Leave the ad-libs at the door
Because I am just a rapper like
Man, yeah I'm all geeked out
Got the tortoise shell frames
Tom Ford pea coat
I'm a lot more dope, I'm a lot more fly
And my wallet stay fat, but I starve my tie
Yeah, these girls loose change
Gotta spend those dimes
Haven't seen real niggas in a long ass time
Nigga I'm so stange, so weird, unusual
Sipping on that whiskey
It's a brain cell funeral
I'll tell you why I'm different
I do this like a nun
Cause I don't give a fuck
I do this shit for fun
A nigga All That like I'm
Hanging out with Kel yes, I hit her g-spot
So I ring her Taco Bell
I got a lot of swagger
Lets me get away with all of it
Like I ate a turd
Real shit is all I nigga spit
I don't play around with these women
I might fuck a bitch
The game's a corporation and
Your nigga's Erin Brockovich
I'm murdering this beat as if
Nobody was watching me
Rapping over Grizzly Bear and now
These hipsters sponsor me
My mouth is this good
Just imagine what my dick can do
Force Feed Radio
Bitch that's what you're listening to
My girl wears Pampers
I fuck the shit out of her
'Bout to blow up
Yeah my swag is the Challenger
These Scrubs are reclusive, JD, Salinger
March on these niggas like they
Fucking with the calendar
If I wasn't this good
How the fuck did I get this far?
Gambino stay fly so up, I'm Pixar
Hold up dude, I think you made a mistake
Don't forget to mention me with Wale
Cudi and Drake bitch
In "For Your Love Freestyle" by Childish Gambino, the lyrics convey a sense of confidence and self-assuredness. Gambino, who is often recognized as both a rapper and comedian, asserts his identity as a rapper and expresses his talent through his lyrics. He dismisses the notion of talking and instead focuses on his rap skills, asserting that he keeps the energy high and the crowd jumping.
The lyrics also touch upon Gambino's demeanor and unique style. He presents himself as unconventional and different, with references to his tortoise shell frames and Tom Ford pea coat. Gambino uses wordplay to emphasize his individuality, describing himself as "strange, weird, and unusual" and sipping whiskey like it's a "brain cell funeral." These lines further emphasize his non-conformity and free-spirited approach to his art.
Gambino also showcases his ability to effortlessly navigate the rap game and his swagger that allows him to get away with anything. He references hitting a girl's G-spot like ringing a Taco Bell and boasts about his swagger that enables him to say and do what he wants. He demonstrates his lyrical prowess by comparing himself to the iconic Kel from "All That" and noting that he only speaks real, genuine lyrics.
In the latter part of the lyrics, Gambino mentions his girl wearing Pampers, using it as a metaphor to describe how he thoroughly satisfies her sexually. He asserts his skills and potential for success, stating that he is about to "blow up" and likens his swag to the Challenger spaceship. He also uses wordplay to reference "Scrubs" and implies that he can overcome any challenges thrown his way.
The concluding lines serve as a shout-out and recognition to his contemporaries, including Wale, Cudi, and Drake. Gambino asserts his status among these artists, positioning himself as a respected figure in the rap scene.
Line by Line Meaning
I do not talk, I am just a rapper
I don't communicate with words, I express myself through my music
I am just a rapper gambino keep it jumping
I am an artist named Gambino and I create energetic music that keeps the audience engaged
These niggas don't know nothing
These individuals lack knowledge and understanding
I keep a girl shaky like
Her pussy lips is krumping
I have the ability to excite and sexually satisfy a woman, causing her pleasure
It's that dude that don't say shit
Leave the ad-libs at the door
I am the type of person who doesn't speak much and prefers to let my actions speak for themselves. I don't rely on unnecessary ad-libs in my music.
Because I am just a rapper like
The condoms on my floor nigga look at me
Just like the condoms on my floor, being a rapper is a significant part of my identity. It defines who I am.
Man, yeah I'm all geeked out
Got the tortoise shell frames
Tom Ford pea coat
I am fully prepared and dressed stylishly with my tortoise shell glasses and Tom Ford pea coat. I'm exuding confidence.
I'm a lot more dope, I'm a lot more fly
And my wallet stay fat, but I starve my tie
I am exceptionally cool and fashionable. Despite having a well-filled wallet, I choose not to invest much in traditional attire.
Yeah, these girls loose change
Gotta spend those dimes
Women easily come and go in my life, but I make sure to focus my attention on the more valuable ones.
Haven't seen real niggas in a long ass time
I've been surrounded by fake people for a considerable period, lacking genuine and authentic individuals.
Nigga I'm so strange, so weird, unusual
Sipping on that whiskey
It's a brain cell funeral
I possess an eccentric and peculiar personality. Indulging in whiskey is like a farewell to my brain cells.
I'll tell you why I'm different
I do this like a nun
Cause I don't give a fuck
I do this shit for fun
Let me explain my uniqueness. I pursue my passion, similar to a nun's devotion, without caring about others' opinions. I do it purely for enjoyment.
A nigga All That like I'm
Hanging out with Kel yes, I hit her g-spot
So I ring her Taco Bell
I am as remarkable as the show 'All That', on which I feel like I'm chilling with Kel Mitchell. I possess the ability to bring pleasure to a woman, even to the extent of making her reach her g-spot (an erogenous zone). The reference to Taco Bell alludes to satisfaction and fulfillment.
I got a lot of swagger
Lets me get away with all of it
Like I ate a turd
Real shit is all I nigga spit
My immense confidence allows me to get away with anything I do, even as outrageous as eating feces. I only speak the truth, nothing less.
I don't play around with these women
I might fuck a bitch
I don't engage in games or frivolity with women. Instead, I may have a sexual encounter with someone I have interest in.
The game's a corporation and
Your nigga's Erin Brockovich
The music industry operates like a business corporation, and I am compared to Erin Brockovich (a notable legal clerk) in terms of my relevance and influence.
I'm murdering this beat as if
Nobody was watching me
I am dominating and delivering a superb performance on this track as if there were no spectators or critics observing me.
Rapping over Grizzly Bear and now
These hipsters sponsor me
I am showcasing my rap skills over unconventional beats like Grizzly Bear's music, which has attracted support and sponsorship from the hipster community.
My mouth is this good
Just imagine what my dick can do
My ability to rap and deliver lines effectively is exceptional. This suggests that my sexual prowess would be equally impressive or satisfying.
Force Feed Radio
Bitch that's what you're listening to
When you listen to my music, you are subjected to an intense and captivating experience comparable to force-feeding. That's the impact I have on my listeners.
My girl wears Pampers
I fuck the shit out of her
Even though my partner wears diapers (Pampers), I engage in intense and pleasurable sexual activities with her.
'Bout to blow up
Yeah my swag is the Challenger
I am about to achieve great success and recognition. My confidence and style are so explosive, just like the space shuttle Challenger.
These Scrubs are reclusive, JD, Salinger
Individuals who possess no talent or significance in the entertainment industry tend to isolate themselves, similar to JD Salinger, the renowned author known for his seclusion.
March on these niggas like they
Fucking with the calendar
I aggressively confront and challenge these individuals as if they are disrupting and violating my plans or schedule.
If I wasn't this good
How the fuck did I get this far?
If I didn't possess exceptional talent, how could I have achieved this level of success and recognition?
Gambino stay fly so up, I'm Pixar
Gambino, my stage name, signifies my consistent flyness and dopeness, reaching a level comparable to the esteemed animation studio Pixar.
Hold up dude, I think you made a mistake
Don't forget to mention me with Wale
Cudi and Drake bitch
Wait, it appears you made an error. Don't overlook mentioning my name alongside other esteemed artists like Wale, Kid Cudi, and Drake.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
divelostmind
love how fun this era was
Jamaal M
Without knowing I can tell this is from before 2011. Ah the old Gambino flow
Jamaal M
Just finished the song... Guess I was wrong
BashTheOutcast
For anyone who asking what the instrumental is from, it sampled from For your Love - The YardBirds.
The Realest Table
I am just a rapper like the condoms on my floor 😂😂😂
Kevin G
That Weezy flow 🔥🔥🔥
Lui_4x
what is that instrumental it's fucking amazing
Kevin Martinez
+FG im counting on you to make lyric videos for Chance 3 please 🙏
sxgo
ayyyy !
do the palisades please !
Brayden
Where does this music surface? Most of these freestyle/underground tracks I have I found on youtube as a reupload, so where does it all originate?