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]
So Much Better
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm cooler than an ice cube, yeah I'm rude
'Bout to get your head sliced, yeah I'm nice
And you 'bout to pay the price
Like The Price Is Right, but I'm not Bob Parker
Yes, I get down like I'm Charlie Parker
Meaning that I'm musically inclined
Get another bullet and I spray bullet (bullet)
And I spray back, pop, pop, click, click (drop, drop) down
Now they lookin' for your body like all over the town
Niggas, my name Gambini, I used to be clean
Now I'm dirty martini, 'cause this boy met world like Feeny
These niggas make wishes like genie
[Verse 2]
Nigga you know how we do
Latinos, black people, and gringos
This money stained my fingers like Cheetos
Blast it out your speakers like keedoh
'Cause I can barely hold it all in like Speedos
These niggas got a lot of nerve
These niggas got a lot of speaks
And all these skinny bitches busy shop at Anthropologie
Who you tryin' to be?
I'mma take my girls to BIM and treat 'em like a VIP
Because I am a G, ugh (G, ugh)
I start the party like Chex Mix
Put it in your house like Netflix
Beat, nigga, it's what's for breakfast
Y'all niggas got beef with this kid
Y'all niggas' punks and stay punks like the Misfits
I'm way off in the distance
Y'all done lost the race like McCain
But like McCain, you used to be cool but now you lame
It's hard to maintain ain't it?
Because I am so much better (than before)
[Verse 3]
My swag is so sick, you might catch it
I'm tired of fuckin' 'round with little kids like I'm Brad Pitt
These little kids need to play in traffic
'Cause all they was was make a nigga giggle like mad-libs
I'm hot like an attic in the summer
And girls scream "Sick Boi" like we know each other
But we don't know each other, you ain't my fucking brother
We need to separate like organic peanut butter
My lightsaber flashing, my kneecaps ashyExplain
And girls of the world used to walk right past me
Now I hang with girls like my girl Kate Perry
I might have to marry Kate like my name Ashley
These rappers don't know what they up against
They can't see a nigga like my names Snuffleupagus
If you don't like my shit, why the fuck you bumpin' this?
I am so much better (than before)
You better get it clean good 'cause this the last straw
And break inside house and leave your gas on
Nigga, we NASA, 'cause we 'bout to blast off
Go in the bathroom, we see you peein' like I'm Shasta McNasty
Get it? UPN? Shasta McNasty?
Nigga, I'm a master
And I'm fucking plastered
I don't need a fucking beat for this, I can make my shit up
While I go here's the part that I'm about to show ya
[Verse 4]
I'm the best 'cause I gotta
The devils wears Prada
And he's got a boom boom like Welcome Back, Kotter
Leave your guy like my daughter
Got cheese like frittata, greed, and filata
Got ya, mama
Most rappers want the drama, but I don't want the drama
I just want a quiet night down at Benihana
I rap 'cause I gotta
Dude's got nada
I make 'em all proud like my middle name Obama
Childish Gambino's song "So Much Better" is a fast-paced rap song that talks about the artist's superiority in the music industry. In the first verse, Gambino establishes his dominance through his music, saying that those who try to get with his stuff will end up getting shot. In the second verse, he talks about his cultural diversity and how he is going to treat his girls, taking them to the BIM to treat them like VIPs. The third verse highlights the contrast between Gambino's successful career and his past struggles with girls and how he grew to be superior to other rappers.
The song's lyrical style is mature and composed, capturing the complex emotions associated with superiority and confidence. Gambino's delivery, which is fast and precise, reflects his style and personality as an artist. The song's beat, which is upbeat and energetic, contributes to the song's overall mood and tone, making it a great addition to any party playlist.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm cooler than an ice cube, yeah I'm rude
I have a lot of confidence and am not afraid to show it
'Bout to get your head sliced, yeah I'm nice
I can be cruel and violent, but I'm also skilled in music and rap
And you 'bout to pay the price
If someone tries to mess with me, they will face consequences
Like 'The Price Is Right', but I'm not Bob Parker
I'm referencing a famous game show, but I'm my own person
Yes, I get down like I'm Charlie Parker
I'm musically talented like the famous jazz musician
Meaning that I'm musically inclined
I have a natural gift for music
If you try to get with mine I'm about to blow yo head back
I will respond aggressively if someone tries to mess with my talent or accomplishments
Get another bullet and I spray bullet (bullet)
I can be violent and dangerous if I feel threatened
And I spray back, pop, pop, click, click (drop, drop) down
My retaliation will be quick and accurate
Now they lookin' for your body like all over the town
People will be searching for the person who challenged me, but they won't find them
Niggas, my name Gambini, I used to be clean
My stage name is Gambini, and I used to be more innocent and naive
Now I'm dirty martini, 'cause this boy met world like Feeny
Now I'm more experienced and tainted, like a dirty martini. I've been through a lot and learned from it, like Mr. Feeny from 'Boy Meets World'
These niggas make wishes like genie
Other rappers are not as talented as me and are wishing they could be as successful
Latinos, black people, and gringos
I represent and connect with people of different races and ethnicities
This money stained my fingers like Cheetos
I've made a lot of money and it's clear from the way I flaunt it
Blast it out your speakers like keedoh
My music is meant to be played loudly and with intensity
'Cause I can barely hold it all in like Speedos
I have so much talent and confidence, it's hard to contain it all
These niggas got a lot of nerve
Other rappers are arrogant and irritating
These niggas got a lot of speaks
Other rappers talk a lot of nonsense
And all these skinny bitches busy shop at Anthropologie
I don't have time for women who care too much about material possessions and trendy clothing brands
Who you tryin' to be?
Why are you trying to copy me or be like me?
I'mma take my girls to BIM and treat 'em like a VIP
I have a lot of respect for and value the women in my life
Because I am a G, ugh (G, ugh)
I am a true gangster or 'G'
I start the party like Chex Mix
I'm the life of the party and always get things started
Put it in your house like Netflix
My music and influence is everywhere, like Netflix is in people's homes
Beat, nigga, it's what's for breakfast
I'm always focused on my craft and improving my music
Y'all niggas got beef with this kid
Other rappers have an issue with me because of my talent and success
Y'all niggas' punks and stay punks like the Misfits
Other rappers are weak and unoriginal
I'm way off in the distance
I'm ahead of my competition and out of their league
Y'all done lost the race like McCain
Just like John McCain lost the presidential race, other rappers have lost in comparison to me
But like McCain, you used to be cool but now you lame
Other rappers used to be popular but now they're irrelevant or uncool
It's hard to maintain ain't it?
It's difficult to stay on top and successful in the music industry
My swag is so sick, you might catch it
My style and confidence is contagious and attracts attention
I'm tired of fuckin' 'round with little kids like I'm Brad Pitt
I'm tired of dealing with immature or unskilled rappers
These little kids need to play in traffic
These rappers are so unskilled, they should just stay out of the way
'Cause all they was was make a nigga giggle like mad-libs
Their music is so bad, it's just laughable and irrelevant
I'm hot like an attic in the summer
I'm on fire and highly skilled
And girls scream 'Sick Boi' like we know each other
Fans are excited to see me perform and react passionately to my music
But we don't know each other, you ain't my fucking brother
My fans and I have a distant relationship and are not actually friends
We need to separate like organic peanut butter
I need to maintain my distance and independence from my fans
These rappers don't know what they up against
Other rappers underestimate my talent and influence
They can't see a nigga like my names Snuffleupagus
Other rappers can't compete with someone as skilled as me
If you don't like my shit, why the fuck you bumpin' this?
If you don't like me or my music, then why are you listening to it?
You better get it clean good 'cause this the last straw
This is your last warning to clean up your act and improve your music before I take action
And break inside house and leave your gas on
I will retaliate and cause damage to my competition
Nigga, we NASA, 'cause we 'bout to blast off
My team and I are highly skilled and powerful and will soon achieve success
Go in the bathroom, we see you peein' like I'm Shasta McNasty
I will embarrass and humiliate my competition
Nigga, I'm a master
I'm highly skilled and a master of my craft
And I'm fucking plastered
I'm drunk or high and not in my right mind
I don't need a fucking beat for this, I can make my shit up
I don't need to rely on a specific beat or music style to create my music
While I go here's the part that I'm about to show ya
I'm about to reveal a new part of my talent or skill
I'm the best 'cause I gotta
I'm the best in the music industry because I work hard at it
The devils wears Prada
I'm referencing a popular book and movie title to make a clever rhyme
And he's got a boom boom like Welcome Back, Kotter
I'm referencing a popular TV show to make a clever rhyme
Leave your guy like my daughter
I will defeat and humiliate my competition like how I care for and protect my daughter
Got cheese like frittata, greed, and filata
I have a lot of money and success
Got ya, mama
I've outsmarted or defeated my competition
Most rappers want the drama, but I don't want the drama
Other rappers seek attention and conflict, while I don't want it
I just want a quiet night down at Benihana
I want to relax and enjoy myself after working hard on my music
Dude's got nada
My competition has nothing of value compared to me
I make 'em all proud like my middle name Obama
I make my family and supporters proud, like how Barack Obama made his supporters proud as President
Contributed by Adam S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@kevmanrocks
Only Gambino can sample Legally Blonde the Musical and make it badass.
@chadsingleton6523
I was listening to legally blond and JUST made that connection today. I was trying to figure out why the end of that song sounded so familiar lol
@OliverWalkerMusic
https://soundcloud.com/oliver_walker/sets/debutmixtape
@whatdoyousuppose
Elle Woods holding that screlt in the background I caaaaaaant đź’€
@valricci4858
the girl belting is laura bell bundy and he sampled this from so much better from the legally blonde musical ssksjjs
@KastleTV
Thanks for that tidbit of knowledge
@DakodaWilliamsFilms
You can definitely see how he used the idea for this for yaphet kotto with the lady screaming in the background
@whatdidyouexpectyouidiot
lady screaming in the background im dead
@valricci4858
the girl is laura bell bundy and he sampled this from so much better from the legally blonde musical lmaooo
@nightshade9348
idk if he was the first to say “beef n*gga it’s what’s for breakfast” but that line has popped into my head countless times over the past 10 years