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]
Kids
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'd want to give you everything that you would want
Those other boys
They gave you toys, but all they wanna do is
Keep up
Keep up, keep up, keep up
That's all I want, keep up
Keep up with me, keep up
Keep up, keep up, keep up
That's all I want, keep up
Keep up with me, keep up
I guess I'm fucking now
I'm getting used to it
It's cause I shine, and I ain't gotta use a crucifix
Fuck the fussing and fighting and arguing to this and that
And "Why you bein' mean to me Donald?" I never texted back
I know it's comin' quick, wishin' I could fast forward
Tell these nice girls they're the reason that I'm an asshole
Omega to alpha male, because of that dollar bill
When I worked the mail room I ain't have a shot in hell
I called her ass for two months and heard shit from her
These girls couldn't care less when the chips under
The chips are up and on my shoulder, you heard me?
I take it out on girls who don't even deserve it
The girls I tried to hit last year, I still might
Karma's a bitch who doesn't suck, but I still like
If we were kids I'd have the black K-swiss and reebok
If we were kids I wouldn't act like this but we not
If we were kids
I'd want to give you everything that you would want
Those other boys
They gave you toys, but all they wanna do is
Keep up
Keep up, keep up, keep up
That's all I want, keep up
Keep up with me, keep up
Keep up
Keep up, keep up, keep up
That's all I want, keep up
Keep up with me, keep up
You made a mistake
These dudes man you bathing in apes
Finding you is like finding Asians I hate
But they say I got a fetish, nah I'm skipping all of it
Black or white girls come with a set of politics
That's all I was saying
I'm a proud man
They wanna holla when they see your name on SoundScan
Her name Mercedes but she push a brown Focus
And she's doing coke in front of me, but act like I don't notice
"There any breakage in that Trojan?"
She see what she wanna see
So I make her take plan B in front of me
Women talk shit on men like all day
But it's Pete Wentz, goes both ways
They too busy stabbing hoes like OJ
They too busy trapping pros like Kobe
The only thing I put before me is do re
If you had told me the truth we'd be OK
If we were kids
I'd want to give you everything that you would want
Those other boys
They gave you toys, but all they wanna do is
Keep up
Keep up, keep up, keep up
That's all I want, keep up
Keep up with me, keep up
Keep up
Keep up, keep up, keep up
That's all I want, keep up
Keep up with me, keep up
In "Kids", Childish Gambino is reminiscing about the innocence and simplicity of childhood, and how life has changed as he has grown into an adult. He wants to go back to a time where he could simply give his love interest everything that she would want, as opposed to the materialistic things that other boys have given her. He wants someone who can keep up with him emotionally and mentally, as well as physically. He speaks about his newfound fame and success, and how it has shaped his identity and relationships with others. He admits to being used to the attention he now receives, but he dislikes the constant fighting and arguments that come with it. He takes out his frustration on women who do not deserve it, and acknowledges that karma will come back to bite him in the future. He makes references to celebrities such as Kobe Bryant and Pete Wentz, showing that he is aware of the hypocrisies in the entertainment industry.
Line by Line Meaning
If we were kids
If we were younger and more innocent
I'd want to give you everything that you would want
I would aim to provide you with everything that you would desire
Those other boys
Other guys in your life
They gave you toys, but all they wanna do is
They gave you material possessions, but all they aim to do is
Keep up
Compete with each other
That's all I want, keep up
That's all I desire from you, to compete with me
Keep up with me, keep up
Match my level of ambition and pace
I guess I'm fucking now
I'm having sexual relationships currently
I'm getting used to it
I'm becoming accustomed to it
It's cause I shine, and I ain't gotta use a crucifix
It's because I'm successful, and I don't need to rely on any religious beliefs
Fuck the fussing and fighting and arguing to this and that
I don't want to deal with any unnecessary drama and conflict
And "Why you bein' mean to me Donald?" I never texted back
I don't respond to people who are rude to me
I know it's comin' quick, wishin' I could fast forward
I know change is coming soon, and I wish I could skip ahead to the future
Tell these nice girls they're the reason that I'm an asshole
I blame these kind girls I've encountered for my cruel behavior
Omega to alpha male, because of that dollar bill
I went from being at the bottom to being the dominant man because of my wealth
When I worked the mail room I ain't have a shot in hell
When I worked in the mail room, I had no hope for success
I called her ass for two months and heard shit from her
I tried to contact her for two months, and she never responded
These girls couldn't care less when the chips under
These girls don't care about me when I'm not rich and famous
The chips are up and on my shoulder, you heard me?
Now that I'm successful, I have a chip on my shoulder
I take it out on girls who don't even deserve it
I release my anger on girls who have done nothing wrong
The girls I tried to hit last year, I still might
I may still try to pursue girls I attempted to date last year
Karma's a bitch who doesn't suck, but I still like
I know that karma exists, and that it can be cruel, but I still acknowledge its presence
If we were kids I'd have the black K-swiss and reebok
If we were younger, I would wear specific types of shoes
If we were kids I wouldn't act like this but we not
If we were younger, I wouldn't behave the way I do now, but we have grown up
You made a mistake
You did something wrong
These dudes man you bathing in apes
These guys you hang out with are foolish and act like wild animals
Finding you is like finding Asians I hate
It's hard to find you, just like how I don't like finding Asians
But they say I got a fetish, nah I'm skipping all of it
People accuse me of having a fetish, but I'm avoiding those accusations
Black or white girls come with a set of politics
Girls, regardless of their race, have certain beliefs and opinions
That's all I was saying
That's all I meant to say
I'm a proud man
I am a confident person
They wanna holla when they see your name on SoundScan
People want to talk to you when they see your name doing well on SoundScan
Her name Mercedes but she push a brown Focus
She has a luxurious name, but drives a basic car
And she's doing coke in front of me, but act like I don't notice
She is using drugs in front of me, but pretends that I don't notice
"There any breakage in that Trojan?"
She is asking if there was a problem with the condom
She see what she wanna see
She perceives things the way she wants to
So I make her take plan B in front of me
I make her take the emergency contraceptive in front of me
Women talk shit on men like all day
Women speak badly about men regularly
But it's Pete Wentz, goes both ways
It can apply to both genders, just like Pete Wentz's bisexuality
They too busy stabbing hoes like OJ
They are too preoccupied with being violent, just like OJ Simpson's incident
They too busy trapping pros like Kobe
They are too focused on trapping women, just like Kobe Bryant's case
The only thing I put before me is do re
The only thing I prioritize myself with is money
If you had told me the truth we'd be OK
If you had been honest with me, our relationship would have been fine
Keep up
Continue to match my level of ambition and pace
Keep up, keep up, keep up
Continuously strive to reach my level
That's all I want, keep up
That's all I desire, for you to keep up with me
Keep up with me, keep up
Match my level of ambition and pace
Keep up, keep up, keep up
Continuously strive to reach my level
That's all I want, keep up
That's all I desire, for you to keep up with me
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DONALD MCKINLEY GLOVER II
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Vishwanath Ji
on This Is America
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http://goo.gl/bgLrfs
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http://goo.gl/2YLBYN