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]
One Up
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yea, we party 'til the sun up
You ain't liking what we doing – shut up
You ain't liking what we doing – shut up
We got that extra life, nigga one up
[Verse 1: Steve G Lover]
Fuck the recession, I'ma keep this thing going
Chick from Bermuda, that's right I get my work foreign
They don't get paid, I got hard dick and purp for 'em
Niggas out of line, get a shovel in the dirt for 'em
Niggas wanna move, get the trucks and the shirt for 'em
Og status, my job's got perks for 'em
Money, clothes, hoes, you ain't ever gotta search for 'em
You know what I'm doing, nigga I'ma do things
Getting to the money, I guess I got a few things
Fifteen nines, five dimes, only two chains
Smoke like Jamaicans, run it like I'm Usain
Fresh from the haircut down to the shoestrings
Hoes talk about me, I'ma need a new name
Steve G the prince, I'm looking like the new king
All I do is win so who the hell's losing
[Hook:] X2
[Verse 2: Childish Gambino]
Bino what the dealy, I heard that flow was silly
I heard you was so east side and that pussy's your Achilles
But really it's time to get up, smoking on that get up
Bino lay it down and work it out like a sit up
I'm feeling like a winner, my living be so easy
My old girl look Leona, my new girl look [ukemi?]
So illy, I got espressos, mi mami give me besos
Shades on my face, Armani helping me lay low
D-Money get his name, these other niggas lame
These niggas used to hate, I guess ain't nothing changed
Shotgun in the Porsche, she don't know where we going
American Royalty on that yolo Ralph Lauren
It's that city where Luda be, stunting was new to me
But now we killing paper, fuck it I might just shoot a G
Leave your face open like you Breezy, I mean it
Nobody need to see nobody leaking, believe me
[Hook:] X2
The song "One Up" by Childish Gambino featuring Steve G Lover talks about their luxurious lifestyle, partying, and their successes in life. The song's hook emphasizes their confidence and their willingness to acquire more things beyond their current status symbolized by "one up." The first verse talks about Steve G's luxurious life, his material possessions such as money, clothes, and women and his ability to get them without much hustle because of his status. He also talks about his ability to win in life, which is a common theme throughout the song.
The second verse demonstrates Childish Gambino's lyrical prowess as he talks about his luxurious life, his ability to get women, and his success in the music industry. He also talks about his confidence in his abilities, which makes him feel like a winner. The song's chorus serves as a confidence booster and a way of telling haters to shut up since they are not in the same level.
Overall, the song is about living extravagantly, partying until dawn, and winning in life. The song reflects the artist's lifestyle and their belief in their abilities to succeed.
Line by Line Meaning
Yea, we party 'til the sun up
We celebrate and enjoy ourselves until the sun rises
You ain't liking what we doing – shut up
If you don't like what we're doing, keep your negative comments to yourself
You ain't liking what we doing – shut up
If you don't like what we're doing, keep your negative comments to yourself
We got that extra life, nigga one up
We are resilient and have the ability to overcome challenges
Fuck the recession, I'ma keep this thing going
I am determined to continue being successful despite economic hardships
Chick from Bermuda, that's right I get my work foreign
I engage in international business with women in Bermuda
They don't get paid, I got hard dick and purp for 'em
I compensate women with sexual favors and drugs instead of money
Niggas out of line, get a shovel in the dirt for 'em
If someone disrespects me, I will retaliate violently
Niggas wanna move, get the trucks and the shirt for 'em
If someone wants to do business with me, I will provide transportation and clothing
Og status, my job's got perks for 'em
I have achieved OG (Original Gangster) status and provide benefits to those who work for me
Money, clothes, hoes, you ain't ever gotta search for 'em
I have plenty of money, clothing, and women, and never have to struggle to obtain them
You know what I'm doing, nigga I'ma do things
I know how to handle my business and will continue to be successful
Getting to the money, I guess I got a few things
Making money is a priority for me and I have figured out how to do it effectively
Fifteen nines, five dimes, only two chains
I have expensive jewelry such as nine-carat diamonds and multiple chains
Smoke like Jamaicans, run it like I'm Usain
I smoke a lot of marijuana and conduct business effectively like Usain Bolt runs
Fresh from the haircut down to the shoestrings
I am impeccably groomed from head to toe
Hoes talk about me, I'ma need a new name
Women are always gossiping about me so I need to create a new persona to stay under the radar
Steve G the prince, I'm looking like the new king
People regard me as royalty and potential successor to the throne
All I do is win so who the hell's losing
I am always successful so it's impossible for anyone to be doing worse than me
Bino what the dealy, I heard that flow was silly
Hey Bino, what's up? I heard your rap style is silly (in a good way)
I heard you was so east side and that pussy's your Achilles
I heard you represent the east side and women are your weakness
But really it's time to get up, smoking on that get up
But in reality, it's time to get going and smoke some marijuana to get energized
Bino lay it down and work it out like a sit up
Bino must lay down some expertise and work hard like during a sit-up exercise
I'm feeling like a winner, my living be so easy
I feel extremely successful and live a very comfortable life
My old girl look Leona, my new girl look [ukemi?]
My ex-girlfriend is beautiful like Leona Lewis while my new girlfriend has a unique look
So illy, I got espressos, mi mami give me besos
I am so cool that I drink espresso coffee and receive kisses from my mother
Shades on my face, Armani helping me lay low
I am wearing Armani sunglasses and they help me stay under the radar
D-Money get his name, these other niggas lame
I go by the name D-Money and the other guys are not as cool as me
These niggas used to hate, I guess ain't nothing changed
These guys used to dislike me but I am still the same person and they can't bring me down
Shotgun in the Porsche, she don't know where we going
I am riding shotgun in a Porsche with a girl who doesn't know our destination
American Royalty on that yolo Ralph Lauren
We are dressed in Ralph Lauren, living like American royalty and embracing the YOLO (You Only Live Once) mentality
It's that city where Luda be, stunting was new to me
We're in the city where Ludacris is from and excessive showing off of wealth is a new experience for me
But now we killing paper, fuck it I might just shoot a G
But now we are making a lot of money, so I may even shoot someone for a large sum of cash
Leave your face open like you Breezy, I mean it
I'll punch someone so hard that their face will be left open like Chris Brown's infamous photo
Nobody need to see nobody leaking, believe me
No one wants to see another person bleeding, trust me
Contributed by Hailey V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@vectormusic0
2024. Still bumpin this tape.
@Vurnex
Man, I lost so many Gambino songs a few years ago when I lost my music. I'm listening to his discography and it's like a blast from the past of so many songs from this tape especially.
@Confusion__24
Royalty is GOATED man!! This and Big Sean's Detroit mixtape gotta be my two favorite mixtapes ever
@zakmiller9363
2023 shits still life AF 🎉
@wann100
ROYALTY on spotify please
@OldPeepaw
once a year someone uploads it on there under a fake name and it gets taken down lol
@wann100
Jonathan Grayson link?
@colin-ih8rv
Jonathan Grayson bet where is it now
@dbboykid10
@@colin-ih8rv lmk when you find it bro
@h3cz_
never happening. its mixtape. you can download it for free