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]
SUNRISE
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm still around, I guess I win
You hear me in your sister's room like all the time
Gambino girl forever on that bracelet that she bought online
To dudes who couldn't take it, might I say, "hasta luega"
Cause I'm taking on your city like I'm Carmen San Diego
I'm smoking, I'm on fire
I am blazin', don't get hurt
To my black girls this is church
From that NYU dorm to the Emirate
Everyone hated me, I'm more hip hop than you'll ever be
I'm bustin', bustin' bustin', bustin' on these niggas man
And nothin', nothin' nothin', nothin' is the same again
You lookin dumb as hell man for ever sleeepin' on him
Your girl is not around, she busy sleepin' on him
Will he fail?
Now that's the wrong conversation
Terry Gross on the mic, I'm the talk of the nation, ha
Hey, what it do bitch?
Why these other rappers do shit stupid?
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit (ayy)
Hey, what it do bitch?
Why these other rappers do shit stupid?
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit (ayy)
New shit
You didn't know?
Black rock like a fuckin' LOST episode
Somethin' for these black kids to call they own
So when you skatin' in your driveway, you not alone
She stay down like that new coat that I bought her
And the fly Rihanna girls be drinkin' my coconut water
And I'm lookin' at her butt
That's that 20/20 hindsight
My shit be Jackson, Jordan, Bolton, Keaton, Tyson: 5 Mikes
Donald Glover, no relation
Always workin', no vacation
They couldn't feel me, novacation
Murder verses, the only motive was motivation
Money equals freedom
I've wanted this since a three year old
I've seen it all, like I'm John Mayer's penis hole
Bein' me, that's something that's so unusual
I've seen the future, and the future go
Hey, what it do bitch?
Why these other rappers do shit stupid?
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit (ayy)
Hey, what it do bitch?
Why these other rappers do shit stupid?
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit (new shit)
Can't you hear me baby?
Can't you hear me callin' out your name?
Can't you hear me baby?
Oh, can't you hear me callin' out your name?
In the song "Sunrise" by Childish Gambino, the rapper talks about his journey in the music industry and his rise to fame. He boasts that he's still around and winning, despite being underestimated by others. Gambino mentions how his music is constantly playing in his sister's room and how he's taking over cities like Carmen San Diego. He also flaunts his success, his influence, and says that he's more hip hop than anyone else.
Gambino addresses his critics, saying that he's too smart for them and that his music is both a concert for white people and a religious experience for black girls. At one point, he references how people used to hate him, from his time in an NYU dorm to his performances in the United Arab Emirates. Gambino boasts that he's busting on his haters and that nothing will ever be the same again. He encourages his listeners to stop sleeping on him and his music, suggesting that they'll miss out on something big if they do. In the end, Gambino acknowledges that he's seen the future and that the future is his.
Overall, "Sunrise" is a song about Gambino's success and how he's overcome obstacles to become a prominent figure in the music industry. He's proud of where he is and wants to let everyone know that they can achieve their dreams as long as they don't give up.
Line by Line Meaning
Yeah nigga, it's me again
The singer, Childish Gambino, is reintroducing himself
I'm still around, I guess I win
The singer has remained relevant and successful
You hear me in your sister's room like all the time
The singer's music is popular and played frequently
Gambino girl forever on that bracelet that she bought online
A fan of the artist's music is represented by a bracelet she wears
To dudes who couldn't take it, might I say, "hasta luega"
The artist bids farewell to those who couldn't handle his success
Cause I'm taking on your city like I'm Carmen San Diego
The singer is conquering a city, similar to the adventures of Carmen Sandiego
I'm smoking, I'm on fire
The singer is on a roll, doing well
I am blazin', don't get hurt
The artist is doing incredibly well, and others ought to take notice
To my whites this is a concert
The music is a concert for white listeners
To my black girls this is church
Black women are highly invested in and impacted by the artist's music
From that NYU dorm to the Emirate
The singer's success has spread far and wide
Everyone hated me, I'm more hip hop than you'll ever be
The artist faced opposition in their journey to succeeding as a hip hop artist
I'm bustin', bustin' bustin', bustin' on these niggas man
The singer is excelling and succeeding beyond expectation
And nothin', nothin' nothin', nothin' is the same again
The singer's success has transformed their life and the world around them
You lookin dumb as hell man for ever sleeepin' on him
Those who didn't believe in the singer or appreciate their talent now look foolish
Your girl is not around, she busy sleepin' on him
The artist's music is so captivating that it takes the attention of the listener's significant other
Will he fail?
There are doubts and concerns about the artist's future success
Now that's the wrong conversation
Focusing on failure is unnecessary and off-topic
Terry Gross on the mic, I'm the talk of the nation, ha
The singer, like journalist Terry Gross, has become influential and a topic of conversation
Hey, what it do bitch?
The artist greets their audience with a casual phrase
Why these other rappers do shit stupid?
The artist doesn't understand why other rappers make bad choices
While they be sleepin' I be onto that new shit (ayy)
The artist is always innovating and creating new music, while others are stagnant
New shit
The singer has created something fresh and different
You didn't know?
The artist is confident in their unique style and talent
Black rock like a fuckin' LOST episode
The singer's music combines elements of rock and hip hop, like the TV show LOST
Somethin' for these black kids to call they own
The singer's music provides representation and a sense of ownership for black youth
So when you skatin' in your driveway, you not alone
The singer's music can be a companion and provide a sense of community even while skating alone
She stay down like that new coat that I bought her
The artist's romantic partner is loyal and committed
And the fly Rihanna girls be drinkin' my coconut water
Attractive women, similar to pop star Rihanna, enjoy the artist's company and offerings
And I'm lookin' at her butt
The singer is physically attracted to his partner
That's that 20/20 hindsight
The singer can now clearly see and understand the consequences of their actions
My shit be Jackson, Jordan, Bolton, Keaton, Tyson: 5 Mikes
The artist compares his talent to some of the greatest living legends, such as Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Mike Tyson
Donald Glover, no relation
The artist clarifies that he is not related to actor Danny Glover, who shares a last name
Always workin', no vacation
The artist is dedicated and hardworking
They couldn't feel me, novacation
Others fail to understand the singer's passion and work ethic
Murder verses, the only motive was motivation
The artist's drive to succeed fueled the quality of his lyrics
Money equals freedom
The singer believes financial success leads to freedom and autonomy
I've wanted this since a three year old
The singer has always dreamed of great success
I've seen it all, like I'm John Mayer's penis hole
The singer compares himself to musician John Mayer, as though he's experienced everything Mayer has
Bein' me, that's something that's so unusual
The artist is proud of his unique perspective and style
I've seen the future, and the future go
The artist envisions a successful future for himself
Can't you hear me baby?
The singer is calling out to his audience, asking to be heard
Can't you hear me callin' out your name?
The singer is specifically calling out to his listeners, hoping to connect with them
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
http://goo.gl/opiYbg
http://goo.gl/SXFJ1X
http://goo.gl/Ja4XGG
http://goo.gl/UoXDri
http://goo.gl/bgLrfs
http://goo.gl/kJQTxi
http://goo.gl/2YLBYN