Donald McKinley Glover, Jr (born September 25, 1983) is an American actor, … Read Full Bio ↴Donald McKinley Glover, Jr (born September 25, 1983) is an American actor, comedian and musician. As a recording artist, he usually performs with the stage name Childish Gambino. While a disk jockey, he performs as mcDJ. He first came to attention for his work with Derrick Comedy and with the help of Tina Fey, was hired at the age of 21 to become a writer for the NBC comedy series 30 Rock. He later played college student Troy Barnes on the NBC sitcom Community. After several self-released albums and mixtapes, Glover signed to Glassnote Records in 2011 as Childish Gambino. He released Camp on Glassnote on November 15, 2011. His second studio album, Because the Internet, was released on December 10, 2013. Glover, Jr was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2015, Best Rap Album for Because the Internet and Best Rap Performance for his single "3005".
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]
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]
U Don't Have to Call
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yeah, where'd you guys go?
To where, In Atlanta?
When I used to live here, I was the strip club queen
Wait, wait, so what's up with Follies? Like lemme know
Follies is my favorite strip club ever, in Atlanta
Follies is the realest
I swear to god-Follies is the realest,
More-so because they have international bitches in there,
You got bitches from Cambodia,
You got bitches from fucking Italy,
You got bitches from fucking Africa,
You got bitches from, Kansas
You got bitches from everywhere in Follies
Situations will arise, in our lives
But you gotta be smart about it
Celebrations, with the guys
I sacrificed, cause you could not sleep without it
Girl I, cause I loved you
You were my girl
See I, thought the world of you
But so you know
You don't have to call baby no
Cause imma be alright tonight
You don't have to call baby no
Imma be alright tonight
My man
I waited, I waited, and waited
For the phone call
And then I served you what she was asking for
Nah, you ain't gotta make that call now
Stone Mountain, yeah, you started running that thing after us
We are very rare
10% Of a foster home trying to Cinderella this shit
This melanin pit they placed us in and said get out
No blueprint, hell's cruiseship
Took him and her, who made him and her
Who made him and her who made her
Who ran away from the south at 14 pregnant
Who made her who came back to the south
Atlanta, Georgia who made me
Funny hairline, white name
Blonde dreads, African name, both of our parents
Original black hippies, so what?
Little 5 point to Avondale to Stone Crest
You out in Lithonia though
But fuck that, I'm a high class nigga
I catch you out at Lenox
Nah fuck that, I'm looking for hoes at Atlantic Station
Nah fuck that, I'm at South DeKalb Mall
Really in the parking lot, leaning on some broke niggas Camry
The pic you sent last night says you really with the shits
My leather passenger seat exhales
Wasn't ready for all that
Cause it's not me
I mean who is right?
Imma take you to Tongue & Groove
There's $20 to wear my hat inside
I give em $100 and tell em to pay for it for the niggas behind me
They playing Jeezy like that shit came out yesterday
Thug motivation, I was never a thug and they used to respect me for it
But now the game's fucked up and I gotta Michael Coreleone these niggas
Quiet, confident, I talked to her
She came with you, but she left with me
And now she's in the passenger seat
So, where we going?
Just the way
Which leaves you standing there thinking
You don't have to call, baby
To where, In Atlanta?
When I used to live here, I was the strip club queen
Wait, wait, so what's up with Follies? Like lemme know
Follies is my favorite strip club ever, in Atlanta
Follies is the realest
I swear to god-Follies is the realest,
More-so because they have international bitches in there,
You got bitches from fucking Italy,
You got bitches from fucking Africa,
You got bitches from, Kansas
You got bitches from everywhere in Follies
Situations will arise, in our lives
But you gotta be smart about it
Celebrations, with the guys
I sacrificed, cause you could not sleep without it
Girl I, cause I loved you
You were my girl
See I, thought the world of you
But so you know
You don't have to call baby no
Cause imma be alright tonight
You don't have to call baby no
Imma be alright tonight
My man
I waited, I waited, and waited
For the phone call
And then I served you what she was asking for
Nah, you ain't gotta make that call now
Stone Mountain, yeah, you started running that thing after us
We are very rare
10% Of a foster home trying to Cinderella this shit
This melanin pit they placed us in and said get out
No blueprint, hell's cruiseship
Took him and her, who made him and her
Who made him and her who made her
Who ran away from the south at 14 pregnant
Who made her who came back to the south
Atlanta, Georgia who made me
Funny hairline, white name
Blonde dreads, African name, both of our parents
Original black hippies, so what?
Little 5 point to Avondale to Stone Crest
You out in Lithonia though
But fuck that, I'm a high class nigga
I catch you out at Lenox
Nah fuck that, I'm looking for hoes at Atlantic Station
Nah fuck that, I'm at South DeKalb Mall
Really in the parking lot, leaning on some broke niggas Camry
The pic you sent last night says you really with the shits
My leather passenger seat exhales
Wasn't ready for all that
Cause it's not me
I mean who is right?
Imma take you to Tongue & Groove
There's $20 to wear my hat inside
I give em $100 and tell em to pay for it for the niggas behind me
They playing Jeezy like that shit came out yesterday
Thug motivation, I was never a thug and they used to respect me for it
But now the game's fucked up and I gotta Michael Coreleone these niggas
Quiet, confident, I talked to her
She came with you, but she left with me
And now she's in the passenger seat
So, where we going?
Just the way
Which leaves you standing there thinking
You don't have to call, baby
The song "U Don't Have to Call" by Childish Gambino is a remake of the 2001 song of the same title by Usher. In this song, the lyrics reflect on situations that arise in our lives and the need to be smart about it. The first verse of the song is a conversation between two individuals discussing their favorite strip club "Follies," which is known to have girls from different parts of the world like Africa, Cambodia, Italy, and Kansas. The second part of the song is a conversation between two individuals, where one person sacrificed a celebration with his friends for the other person. The chorus iterates that the person does not have to call anyone as they will be alright tonight. The song's third part is a conversation between two individuals where one person waited for a phone call and the other person served what was being asked for. The song ends with the line "You don't have to call, baby."
Line by Line Meaning
Yeah, where'd you guys go?
Asking where someone went
When I used to live here, I was the strip club queen
Being a regular at strip clubs when lived here before
Follies is my favorite strip club ever, in Atlanta
Expressing love for Follies strip club in Atlanta
Follies is the realest
Emphasizing how authentic and genuine Follies is
You got bitches from Cambodia,
Noting the diversity of strippers at Follies
Situations will arise, in our lives
Acknowledging that unexpected situations can occur
But you gotta be smart about it
Implying the importance of being intelligent in difficult situations
Celebrations, with the guys
Partying and drinking with friends
I sacrificed, cause you could not sleep without it
Accepting that sacrifices have to be made in a relationship
You don't have to call baby no
Telling an ex-lover that they do not need to contact the artist anymore
My man
Addressing a male friend
I waited, I waited, and waited
Describing the anticipation for a phone call
Nah, you ain't gotta make that call now
Telling the person they don't need to make the call they were planning to
Stone Mountain, yeah, you started running that thing after us
Referencing a physical area and asserting dominance over it
We are very rare
Claiming that the singer and those like them are unique and special
This melanin pit they placed us in and said get out
Pointing out systemic racism and oppression
No blueprint, hell's cruiseship
Expressing feeling lost and directionless
I'm a high class nigga
Asserting social status and hierarchy
The pic you sent last night says you really with the shits
Acknowledge a photo that shows the subject being tough or cool
My leather passenger seat exhales
Describing the luxurious car being driven
Quiet, confident, I talked to her
Respectful way of saying the artist talked to a girl
So, where we going?
Asking where they are headed
Which leaves you standing there thinking
Implying that the subject of the song is left standing alone
Imma take you to Tongue & Groove
Naming a nightclub where the artist wants to take someone
Thug motivation, I was never a thug and they used to respect me for it
Reflecting on how perceptions of the singer have changed
But now the game's fucked up and I gotta Michael Coreleone these niggas
Comparing oneself to a character in The Godfather and asserting the need for dominance
She came with you, but she left with me
Boasting about being able to woo someone away from another person
Just the way
Saying they are going their own direction and don't need anyone else
You don't have to call, baby
Repeating the earlier statement of not needing to be contacted by an ex-lover
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Chad Hugo, Pharrell Williams
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@alexanderd.gonzalez7942
after enjoying this for years I finally get it. His verse is him bein fly because he got a chick doesnt need that call he wanted, and still kinda does...
@yayaminah7908
I just heard this from an IG video. Wow! I knew this man was talented but this just moved me
@FaRtBoMb42
"I sweatergawd"
@KevinMartinez-uz3hg
deadd 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@kenyattachandler5206
FaRtBoMb42 beat me to the comment lol
@tybond6463
big dead
@kennysweet2602
😮💨😂😂
@isabellecordova2673
This is such a good remix😭🔥
@ThePathfinder1324
now I just want to fall in love in Atlanta
@iwannadie3325
I still love this song