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]
I'd Die Without You
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I tend to dream you when I'm not sleeping
Is it my turn to fictionalize my world?
Even imagine your emotions, tell myself anything
Is it my turn, to hold you by your hands?
Tell you I love you and I hear you
Is it my turn to totally understand?
To watch you walk out of my life and not do a damn thing
If I have to sacrifice, whatever baby, whatever baby
If I have to take apart all that I am
Is there anything that I would not do
‘Cause inside i'd die without you
Oh Oh baby I'd die without you
Die without you
Oh, I apologize for all the things I've done
But now I'm underwater and I'm drowning
Is it my turn to be the one to cry
Isn't it amazing how some things completely turn around
So take every little piece of my heart
Piece of my heart
Take every little piece of my soul
Piece of it
Take every little piece of my mind
Cause if you don't
Inside
I'd die without you
Die without you
Yeah baby
Die without you
If I have to give away
The feeling that I feel
Yeah If I have to sacrifice
Oh, whatever baby, whatever baby
If I have to take apart
All that I am
Is there anything that I would not do
‘Cause inside
I'd die without you
Die without you
Cause inside
I'd die without you
Die without you
Oh no
Die without you
Oh, I apologize for all the things I've done
But now I'm underwater and I'm drowning
In "I'd Die Without You," Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) sings about the intense feeling of love and yearning for someone. He questions if it's his turn to wish that person were lying next to him, and if he can fictionalize his world, imagining that person's emotions. He wants to hold them and tell them he loves them, and to completely understand them, but he knows that it's possible for them to walk out of his life without any hesitation. He is willing to sacrifice everything he has for that person, even though this could ultimately lead to a feeling of being underwater, drowning in his own emotions. However, he cannot imagine living without this person and 'inside, he would die without them.'
The lyrics show the painful vulnerability of love, with Gambino bearing his very soul. He portrays himself as desperate and lovesick, willing to do anything to be with the person he loves. However, he is also aware of the reality that even if he were to give everything up, it still might not guarantee that person staying with him. His emotions are raw and intense, and the song captures the feelings of a person who is completely consumed by love.
Line by Line Meaning
Is it my turn, to wish you were lying here?
Am I allowed to dream about you even when you're not around?
I tend to dream you when I'm not sleeping
I keep thinking about you even in my subconscious thoughts.
Is it my turn to fictionalize my world?
Can I imagine that we're together and pretend as if everything's alright?
Even imagine your emotions, tell myself anything
I create a fake story about what you're feeling and tell myself whatever I want to believe.
Is it my turn to hold you by your hands?
Should I be the one to reach out and express my love for you?
Tell you I love you and I hear you
I want to say those words to you and comfort you anytime you need me.
Is it my turn to totally understand?
Do I have to be the one to comprehend what you're going through?
To watch you walk out of my life and not do a damn thing
It hurts me to see you leave, but I can't do anything to stop you.
If I have to give away the feeling that I feel
If I need to sacrifice my love for you, I'll do it without hesitation.
If I have to sacrifice, whatever baby, whatever baby
No matter what it takes, I'm willing to do everything for you.
If I have to take apart all that I am
Even if I have to give up on myself, I'll do it if it means keeping you safe and happy.
Is there anything that I would not do
I'm ready to do anything to keep you by my side.
‘Cause inside i'd die without you
I can't bear the thought of living without you.
Oh Oh baby I'd die without you
My love for you is so strong that I couldn't survive without you.
Oh, I apologize for all the things I've done
I'm sorry for my mistakes and wish I could make things right.
But now I'm underwater and I'm drowning
I'm struggling to keep myself afloat and need your help to get through this.
Isn't it amazing how some things completely turn around
It's fascinating how things can unexpectedly change for the better.
So take every little piece of my heart
I'm giving you my heart and trusting you to keep it safe.
Piece of my heart
I'll give you a part of me because that's how much I love you.
Take every little piece of my soul
My soul belongs to you, and I'll give you everything that I am.
Piece of it
I'm offering you a part of my being because my love for you knows no limit.
Take every little piece of my mind
I'll share everything that's in my mind with you because you're the only one I trust with my thoughts.
Cause if you don't inside I'd die without you
If you reject me, it feels like a part of me is dying.
Yeah baby
My affection for you is unwavering and forever.
Oh no
I'm scared that I'll lose you, and I can't bear that thought.
Contributed by Camden V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@wackerster
@Iris E Donald Glover is still doing more and with damn near just as much critical and a lot of commercial acclaim.
As a rapper Because the Internet was universally acclaimed and went platinum. He also wrote, starred in, and produced a critically acclaimed short film based on the story from that record.
Also, as a rapper, This is America was one of the biggest songs of the 2010s, not to mention all his mixtapes and singles that reached wide audiences.
As a singer Awaken, My Love won grammys and also went platinum while his EP Kauai and his series of covers, such as this one, all have a ton of streams/views.
As an actor he has starred as one of the most iconic characters in the Star Wars universe, as the lead in Atlanta, as a main character in Community, and in pivotal and well received smaller roles in huge movies like The Martian and Spiderman Homecoming along with almost a hundred other credits.
As a voice actor he played Simba in the Lion Kind remake and has also shown up in Adventure Time and Ultimate Spiderman as well
As a songwriter he has also won grammys for Redbone and has sold millions of units across a few genres including R&B and Funk, not to mention his features on other huge artists projects. He's collaborated with Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Chance the Rapper, Jhene Aiko, and Rhianna just to scratch the surface.
As a screenwriter, director, and showrunner he created one of the highest rated tv shows of all time in the award-winning Atlanta, but he also wrote a bunch of episodes for 30 Rock, also one of the highest rated comedies of all time.
He also wrote and choreographed a lot of his music videos and collaborated on one of the most popular music videos of all time in the previously mentioned This is America.
Not to mention the critically acclaimed and heavily streamed Guava Island which also nets him a nice Movie Producer credit on a successful project.
As a Music Producer he handled a lot of responsibility on his surprise hit album from earlier this year 3.15.20.
As a television producer I'll circle back to Atlanta but also mention the Deadpool project that was greenlit and pulled back but by all accounts was brilliant.
In terms of fashion, he put out one of the top selling sneakers a couple years ago and his various looks have been cited all over the hip hop world as a big influencer.
He's also a talented dancer and choreographer as evidenced by the This is America and Sober music videos as well as several sequences in Guava Island.
He's also a hugely successful producer/promoter/performer of live music as evidenced by his headlining appearances at festivals like Coachella and his Pharos shows in the desert a few years back.
As a standup comic he found a ton of success with Weirdo and his 30 minute comedy central special and even more with his College Humor, Funny or Die, and Derrick Comedy internet sketches.
There's really nobody out there doing what Donald Glover has done in the past decade. Yes, Jamie Foxx also has an impressive resume and probably has higher highs of his career (especially as an actor) but he's not doing as much at a consistently high level as Donald.
@carlae.5826
PM Dawn's version is untouchable but ALL of Donald Glover's covers are exceptional.
@marcus4253
💯
@dibxander2030
💯💯
@jimmbobb
Why am I only now hearing this version?! Love it!!
@gsotoaz
I’ve been waiting for YEARS FOR someone to do a respectable of this. Love it.
@danikindle73
check out alicia keys version
@austinmurray5707
I wish Seal would do it
@traviseure5797
one of the best ballats of all time classic he did his thing
@Empatheticbella
Brandy & Ray j did one a couple of years ago ❤️
@lisapasley3640
He did a wonderful job.....a great tribute