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]
II. No Exit
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Please don't run away
I'm a murderer
What can I say?
Don't go, gotta know
Please don't run away
I'm a murderer
What does that change?
Can't sleep
3 A.M., stare at the ceilin', murder the feelin'
Spider crawl in the corner, brown recluse
So appropriate, cornucopia
So be it, say I'm over it
Playin' Lil Durk, "Dis Ain't What U Want"
Look at my feet, I put my sneakers in the trunk
Pass a Fatburger through Atwater village
Laugh for a minute, couldn't cry for the life of me
Park by the bridge, sit on the hood, look at the cars
Stare at my hands, look at the moon, I can't find it, it's gone
What's wrong? Didn't respond when I texted you last night, "You alright?" Yeah
Don't go, gotta know
Please don't run away
I'm a murderer
What can I say?
Don't go, gotta know
Please don't run away
I'm a murderer
What does that change?
Man is a star bound to a body inside of me
20 million degrees, burn a man to his knees
Late at night in a hurry bought a McFlurry and half of an apple pie
When I'm laughin', I'm satisfied, when I'm dyin', I'm still alive, strange position
I'm in a good mood so good I'ma kill that spider
Them kinda things they told me I no longer do that, but now you finally get it admit it
Go home, lock all the doors, fold all the clothes
Watch cartoons for an hour turn off the lights, look at the recluse
Look at the recluse
Look at the recluse
Look at the rec
Don't go, gotta know
Please don't run away
I'm a murderer
What can I say?
Don't go, gotta know
Please don't run away
I'm a murderer
What does that change?
(Don't go, don't go, don't go)
(Don't go) Don't go
Don't go, don't go, don't go
The song "II. No Exit" by Childish Gambino is a multi-layered track that deals with various themes such as insomnia, anxiety, and self-doubt. The first few lines of the chorus "Don't go, gotta know, Please don't run away, I'm a murderer, What can I say?" evoke feelings of desperation and a plea for someone to stay. In the next few lines, Gambino talks about his inability to sleep and how it affects him mentally. He talks about the spider crawling on his ceiling as a metaphor for the thoughts that are crawling in his mind, and how his anxiety makes him feel like a murderer.
As the song progresses, Gambino talks about going out and passing a Fatburger through Atwater village, but instead of being able to cry, he laughs briefly before experiencing a moment of introspection. He stares at his hands and watches the moon disappear, which further highlights the feeling of despair that he's going through. In the last verse, Gambino talks about the heat inside him burning at 20 million degrees, which is a metaphor for his anxiety and stress. He talks about buying a McFlurry and half of an apple pie, which is a strong contrast to the anxious thoughts that he's been having throughout the song.
Overall, "II. No Exit" is a powerful commentary on the human psyche, delving into the complexities of anxiety, self-doubt, and despair.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't go, gotta know
I don't want you to leave without telling me why
Please don't run away
I'm afraid you'll leave and never come back
I'm a murderer
I feel guilty for something I've done
What can I say?
There's nothing I can do or say to make it better
Can't sleep
I'm struggling with insomnia
3 A.M., stare at the ceilin', murder the feelin'
I'm awake at an ungodly hour, fighting my inner demons
Spider crawl in the corner, brown recluse
Even nature seems to reflect my dark thoughts and feelings
So appropriate, cornucopia
It's fitting that there's a variety of unsettling things around me
So be it, say I'm over it
I'll pretend to be okay, even though I'm not
Playin' Lil Durk, "Dis Ain't What U Want"
I'm listening to music that reflects my mood
Look at my feet, I put my sneakers in the trunk
I feel like I need to get away from everything
Pass a Fatburger through Atwater village
I'm trying to find comfort in food
Laugh for a minute, couldn't cry for the life of me
I'm so emotionally numb that I can't even cry
Park by the bridge, sit on the hood, look at the cars
I'm searching for distraction, even if it's just watching cars go by
Stare at my hands, look at the moon, I can't find it, it's gone
I'm feeling lost and disconnected from everything
What's wrong? Didn't respond when I texted you last night, "You alright?" Yeah
I'm worried about you, and it feels like you don't care
Man is a star bound to a body inside of me
I feel like I'm trapped in my own body
20 million degrees, burn a man to his knees
I'm feeling intense emotions that are overwhelming me
Late at night in a hurry bought a McFlurry and half of an apple pie
I'm using food as a coping mechanism
When I'm laughin', I'm satisfied, when I'm dyin', I'm still alive, strange position
I feel alive when I'm laughing, but I also feel like I'm dying inside
I'm in a good mood so good I'ma kill that spider
I'm trying to assert control over something, even if it's just killing a spider
Them kinda things they told me I no longer do that, but now you finally get it admit it
I'm doing things that I know I shouldn't be doing, but it feels necessary
Go home, lock all the doors, fold all the clothes
I feel a need for order and control in my life
Watch cartoons for an hour turn off the lights, look at the recluse
I'm trying to distract myself from my thoughts
Look at the recluse
The spider represents my fears and anxieties
(Don't go, don't go, don't go)
I'm begging you not to leave
(Don't go) Don't go
I'm terrified that you'll leave me alone
Don't go, don't go, don't go
Please don't abandon me
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Ludwig Emil Tomas Goransson, Donald Mckinley Glover
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Vishwanath Ji
on This Is America
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