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]
You Know Me
Childish Gambino Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I feel you on stage (I feel you on stage)
Oh tangerine, so sublime
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know
I never thought I'd see forty, I hope there's forty to go
Might die tomorrow, who knows
Your mama says you was grown, was tryna buy you new clothes
The bode knowing you probably grow out, I'm sure they do fit
And daddy shoes was oversized, grew into 'em quick
The deepest blue when daddy died, the ocean was jealous
I'm tryna be around a little longer than my father
And my father's father, why even bother?
If time is water, you ankle deep
Elmo floaties, bubbles of life uncertain
I'm driftin' off to the falls and struggle to fight the current
Wishin' that I could pause
God let me borrow that universal remote
With no rehearsal they wrote a whole verse
That's the earth we get served with no regrets
With no shoes and no shirt and that's birth
I never meant to make the thing hurt, but what's worse?
We never meet at all? Never nah
When we escaped to the beach (let's make a great escape)
Watchin' the waves crash (watchin' the waves crash)
Just you and me (it's just you and me)
Oh, I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
Summer time, plantin' seeds (you and me plantin' seeds)
Waitin' to see our garden grow (see our garden grow)
In the spring
Oh, I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know (I love you more than you know)
I love you more than you know
I love you more than you know (I love you, I love you)
Uh, uh, uh, more than you know
Uh, uh
Oh, I love you more than you know
I love you more than you, mm
Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm
Childish Gambino's song You See Me is a satirical take on the artist's own egotism in the music industry. The lyrics revolve around materialism, objectification of women, and his disdain towards haters. The opening lines, "I'm on my ballin' each and every day, Asian girls everywhere, UCLA, you see me babe? You see me babe? Asian girls everywhere, UCLA" sets the tone of the song, highlighting the recurring themes of material success and objectification of women. Gambino then goes on to address his haters' frequent attempts at taking shots at him through their criticism of his fashion choices, to which he responds by saying, "If I'm a faggot spell it right, I got way more than two G's." Gambino is suggesting that he has more money than the people that are trying to take shots at him, hence he is more successful than them.
The next lines, "Nigga, I'm amazing, I'm a phenom, I'm assassin, I'ma kill y'all, I'ma say ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa, And this shit's closed now cause I ball too hard, And I'm cumming on her face, have I gone too far?" show Gambino's blatant disregard for social conventions, using vulgar language and references to sexual acts. He questions whether he has gone too far by his behavior towards women. In the following lines, Gambino suggests that he is the realest motherf***r in the game like Tron, implying that he is the most genuine artist in the music industry.
Interestingly, despite the song's sexist overtones, Gambino also touches upon the subject of racism, stating the need for "variation" and "especially if she very Asian." Towards the end, he also addresses the use of the N-word in rap music, questioning why people get offended by it.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm on my ballin' each and every day
I'm constantly living my best life
Asian girls everywhere, UCLA
I see many Asian girls at University of California, Los Angeles
You see me babe? You see me babe?
Do you see how great my life is?
I'm on my ish, call it
I'm on my game
I watch these haters take they shots like they were alcoholics
I see people hating on me like they have an addiction to it
"What is he wearing? Somebody jack that fool's steeze"
People are criticizing my style, but someone is trying to copy it
If I'm a faggot spell it right, I got way more than two G's
Don't misspell an insult against me, and I'm much more wealthy than you think
Nigga I'm amazing, I'm a phenom
I am very impressive and have great talent
I'm assassin, I'ma kill y'all
I'm capable of destroying anyone who tries to stop me
I'ma say ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa
I'm quoting a famous song
And this shit's closed now cause I ball too hard
I'm so successful that things around me are shutting down
And I'm cumming on her face, have I gone too far?
I may have crossed the line here with this sexual act
I don't know, who cares, I don't love that broad
I'm indifferent to this woman
And it's funny how these fake niggas always act hard
It's amusing how these fraudulent people pretend to be tough
I'm a black star in a black car with a black card
I have great success and wealth
They wanna knock me out
People want to take me down
They tryin' nigga
They are attempting to stop me
Realest motherfucker in the game like Tron, nigga
I am the most authentic person involved in my profession
Forget these white girls
I need some diversity in my dating life
I need some variation
I want some variety
Especially if she very Asian
I am particularly attracted to Asian women
She got an ugly friend? Roll solo
I won't let the presence of an unattractive person stop me from pursuing the one I want
Can I stay at your place? No hobo
Can I sleep at your home? I promise I am not homeless
Not my fault, man, these ladies love me
I am not to blame for my popularity with women
She's an overachiever cause all she do is succeed
This woman is successful in everything she does
Send me naked pics, I'ma Tumble that
Send me nude photos, I'll post them on social media
I'm the shit, been the shit, fuck a humble brag
I am amazing and don't need to downplay it with false modesty
Yeah we pushin' that, and her pussycat
We are promoting certain things and enjoying female company
I got swag out my ass so I'm usin' that
I have a ton of confidence and I'm putting it to use
Textin' with Olivia Munn, hopefully she'll give me some
I am texting with a celebrity and hoping for something sexual
Or some Rosie Jones, man
Maybe something sexual will happen with another celebrity
Hoes is hoes is hoes, man
Women who are promiscuous are all the same
Racks on racks on racks, man
I have a lot of money
All I got is tracks, man
My music is all I really have
Sorry for my accent, but I've been practicin'
Excuse my accent, but I've been working on it
Everywhere you go niggas blastin' that Gambino
People are listening to music by Childish Gambino everywhere you go
Niggas be like, "You ain't know?"
People are surprised when they find out about me
Bitches be like, "You ain't know?"
Women are also surprised when they learn about me
Met this fly Latino
I just met an attractive Latina
Hope that she eighteen though
I hope she is of legal age
If she not, I'll say that I got deep throat in Heathrow
If she is underage, I will lie and say we had sexual activity in another location
Told me I was shit, but that shit couldn't stop me
Someone insulted me, but it didn't hinder my success
Nigga still hungry, black Kobayashi
I'm still working hard and trying to achieve more
When I talk about you I hear a "who?" like Horton
When I mention you, people are unfamiliar with who you are
I was born for this shit, you a rappin' abortion
I was meant for this career and you are a terrible rapper
Can we hear the N-word one day and not get upset?
Can we desensitize ourselves to a racial slur?
Can we try something new and not be suspect?
Can we be more open-minded?
I don't really know, we fucked up bad
I don't have a solution, but something is not right
You don't wanna see my dudes when they get mad
You should not mess with my friends when they are angry
I got a bunch of jackanapes at the back of me
I have a group of silly people following me
That'll lacerate anyone in the back of a matinee
They are capable of causing harm to anyone sitting behind us in a movie theater
And laugh while they masturbatin' all over your beaten body
They will cruelly enjoy watching someone degrade themselves over hurting you
Sick boy forever, that Suburban Illuminati
I will always be an outsider and part of a secret society
Naw nigga, yeah, we never stop
We will always keep going, never give up
No period like menopause
We will never slow down or take a break
No period like, "Oh shit!
We are always in motion and doing something exciting
Am I the only one you sleepin' with?
Are you exclusive with me or seeing other people?
Am I the only one you sleepin' with?"
The question of exclusivity is repeated for emphasis on the uncertainty
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: Donald Glover, Malik Flint, Peder Losnegard
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Prxmetheus
Everyone comparing both Kendrick and childish verse but can I just say this beat is filthy... Respect to gambino for making it and killing it respect to Kendrick for resurrecting and killing again
Tom Benolkin
If you listen to the album it IS HARD to find your fav track... THEY ALL RULE
King Toastz
Gambino is really starting to rise in the charts!
JuliusC
lyrically:A beat:A++ creativity:A flow:A+
fuzzzy_b
When it dropped who instantly started with "Tire marks, Tire marks"
DownFromTheREEEfters
Good AM
Philipp Gabler
I start with "shout out to schoolboy q..." :D but know what u mean
Jordahn Brunson
me
Caleb Daniels
Yess lmao
ArKane Truth
Hes always been one of the best rappers even when he just had mixtapes like Poindexter sick boi and his other that I cant think of right now. He is definitely the rapper that has the best fucking metaphors