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]
God Save The Villain
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Money ain't a thing except for like always
Used to make a stack and have
To split that shit four ways
Eatin' a cheese croquette
Beer garden these bitches
Flow wasabi lie to me feeling so Sid Vicious
Woke up and did dishes
Back when white kids would say "not"
Nerd Alert i would watch Carmen Sandiego and
Get my feelings hurt i wanna do that man
Hard like a lap dance
Call a lady friend and get that
Head like a CAT scan hit the blue dream
CPR my smoke
'Bino not your favorite rapper cause
Your favorite rapper broke he a joke dude
Why you fucking with him let me coach you
Its the eyebrow nigga with the fucked up hair
And we drink brown liquor at the
Compound with the lights down
And her nightgown is nothing so I'm fucking
Right? Sometimes I'm in the middle of
That shit and I'm like
"This is what I wanted"
Fuck I must be blunted
Was that out loud we want hunnit
Is that shit straight?
Gambino more childish than a kid's play
Instead of an ashtray I use your mixtape
With my nigga EAE then we gotta be
Stop the fussing I am a glutton
Motherfucking your discussions
I rap with substance alcoholic drinks
We assemble 3D 'Bino D-von I am Buh-Buh Ray
Fuck another match I wrestle
Cats with wisdom everyday
Part of the game is missing
Never could fall a victim but I fixed it
Switch positions to assist myself
Passes to the glass
Not pasteurizing the past
But milking it for it's worth
Now pastors are on my ass
I keep that shorty around like the merry go
Fuck her like a gigolo
Drink until my liver gone
And bambam like I'm Bigelow
Trees up in a bong double D's up in her bra
In the hood we spit them verses
While the white boys play guitar
I'm so un raw and never go off
Incredible feats a nigga is beast
I'm just making the beats
I never unleashed the lion
Though I'm trying to
Your heart is still with Zion too
Find that solitude but only
Rapper niggas I include
Intellect not the instrument
Fuck the world I got the biggest dick
Take you on this ego trip
Pack your bags popping tags
A woman is not a shopping bag
She just shops at Saks
I fill her with my juice now shes
Loose and on on my slacks
So what is all this better get up off it
And proceed with caution
Dream killers we making them nauseous
Putting them in these coffins
Forever dumping never sweating records
If your records represent your resting
Place this is the grave that Heaven made
In "God Save The Villain" by Childish Gambino, the rapper talks about his ascension in the music industry and the challenges he faced as an upcoming artist. He highlights the struggle of earning money in the early stages of his career, where he used to split the income between four people. Gambino discusses how he used to wake up and do the dishes himself, showing how he didn't have typical luxury of being a famous celebrity. He also expresses how his flow is strong, similar to the late Sid Vicious, the bass guitarist for the punk rock band, Sex Pistols.
Gambino also talks about how he dealt with rejection as a child when watching the game show Carmen Sandiego, and relates it to his current dream of being a successful musician. Though he sometimes burns out and has self-doubt, he keeps pushing to reach his goal. Gambino also talks about the lifestyle he leads, like smoking weed and drinking alcohol. He has a candid tone to his lyrics, and he mentions his love life and casual hookups.
Overall, "God Save The Villain" by Childish Gambino is an inspiring track about his journey to become a successful rapper while also maintaining his resolve and focus towards his goals.
Line by Line Meaning
Money ain't a thing except for like always
Money doesn't hold value except for the fact that it does, but it shouldn't be the only thing that matters.
Used to make a stack and have to split that shit four ways
I used to make a lot of money, but I had to split it with my group members.
Eatin' a cheese croquette beer garden these bitches
I'm casually snacking on a cheese croquette while hanging out with some attractive women in a beer garden.
Flow wasabi lie to me feeling so Sid Vicious
My rap flow is sharp and intense, like wasabi, and it makes me feel rebellious like Sid Vicious did.
Woke up and did dishes nigga that's my dirty work
I did something as mundane as dishes, which is the dirty work that needs to get done.
Back when white kids would say 'not' nerd alert I would watch Carmen Sandiego and get my feelings hurt i wanna do that man
I was a nerd back when it wasn't cool, watching Carmen Sandiego and feeling out of place. But I still wanted to try and be like her.
Hard like a lap dance call a lady friend and get that head like a CAT scan hit the blue dream CPR my smoke
I'm as intense as a lap dance, and I get my pleasure by smoking some potent weed until I feel like I'm suffocating.
'Bino not your favorite rapper cause your favorite rapper broke he a joke dude why you fucking with him let me coach you
I'm not the most popular rapper out there, but at least I'm not broke and a bad joke. Trust me as your coach instead.
Its the eyebrow nigga with the fucked up hair and we drink brown liquor at the compound with the lights down and her nightgown is nothing so I'm fucking right?
I'm the guy with weird eyebrows and hair, and I'm having an intimate moment with a woman in a dimly lit room while we drink brown liquor.
Sometimes I'm in the middle of that shit and I'm like 'This is what I wanted' fuck I must be blunted was that out loud we want hunnit is that shit straight?
Sometimes I feel like what I'm doing is what I wanted, but then I realize it may just be the weed talking. Do we just want money? Is everything okay?
Gambino more childish than a kid's play instead of an ashtray I use your mixtape with my nigga EAE then we gotta be
I'm more immature than a child's game, and I use your mixtape as an ashtray. I hang out with my friend EAE and then we have to leave.
Stop the fussing I am a glutton motherfucking your discussions I rap with substance alcoholic drinks we assemble 3D 'Bino D-von I am Buh-Buh Ray
Stop arguing, I have a lot to say and I'm not afraid to do so. I rap with meaning, even when I'm drinking. The group EAE and I are like wrestlers 3D, and I'm Buh-Buh Ray.
Fuck another match I wrestle cats with wisdom everyday part of the game is missing never could fall a victim but I fixed it switch positions to assist myself
I don't want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. I'm always facing challenges, but I'm wise enough to deal with them. Part of the game is always going to be lacking, but I don't let myself become a victim of it. I switch things up to help myself.
Passes to the glass not pasteurizing the past but milking it for it's worth now pastors are on my ass
I'm not rehashing the past events, but I'm using them to my advantage. I'm making the most out of what I have. Now the authority figures are coming after me.
I keep that shorty around like the merry go fuck her like a gigolo drink until my liver gone and bambam like I'm Bigelow trees up in a bong double D's up in her bra
I keep this woman around like a toy, have sex with her like I'm getting paid for it, and drink until I can't take it anymore. I'm wild like Bam Bam Bigelow and we smoke weed from a bong. She's got big boobs.
In the hood we spit them verses while the white boys play guitar I'm so un raw and never go off incredible feats a nigga is beast I'm just making the beats
In the ghetto, we rap while white guys play guitar. I'm not rough or raw like other rappers, but I'm still an impressive performer. I'm just the one making the beats.
I never unleashed the lion though I'm trying to your heart is still with Zion too find that solitude but only rapper niggas I include intellect not the instrument
I haven't shown my full potential yet, but I'm working on it. You're still attached to your past roots. I'm searching for my own peace and calmness, but I'm still including only rappers like me. My wit is sharper than my musical abilities.
Fuck the world I got the biggest dick take you on this ego trip pack your bags popping tags a woman is not a shopping bag she just shops at Saks
I don't care about what the world thinks of me, I have the biggest ego out there. I'll take you on this journey with me. We'll pack our bags, buy expensive things, but remember women can't be bought. They can only shop at places like Saks.
I fill her with my juice now shes loose and on on my slacks so what is all this better get up off it and proceed with caution dream killers we making them nauseous putting them in these coffins forever dumping never sweating records if your records represent your resting place this is the grave that Heaven made
I've had my way with her, and she's all over me. I'm not sure what all of this means, but we should take caution. We're succeeding while others are failing, and we're leaving them behind. We'll never stop doing what we love. If your music is your resting place, then understand that the industry will kill your career.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Bren
Still listening in 2021, lowkey happy this song is only known by the special few
TheTriangleOffense
Man this a real hidden gem, Real ones know about this
Chief Beef
this a hella underrated song. I wish I knew about it earlier on..😩
Dylan Gant
erick is really gettin his lyrics/flow up
Red R0ver
Erick Ark kills it.
hyperUFO
Flatbush, Pro Era and Odd Future were my guardian angels during my first real smoking sessions.
Name UL
still bumping this shit! hidden gem
Twig
Wish this tape was on streaming
young crimez
A hidden gem 🌊🌊
luhvysw4q
Shit still bangs