What Child is This: Childish Gambino

So, I was doing my homework watching the 2012 BET Awards and a rap cypher came on. For those who aren’t familiar with that term, a rap cypher is basically a group of rappers taking turns supposedly “freestyling” over a continuous beat. In the cypher featuring Angel Haze, Joey Bada$$, Driicky Graham, Childish Gambino, and A$AP Rocky, there was one artist that stood out to me the most. His name is Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover. If the name Donald Glover sounds familiar, it is probably because you have seen him or know of some of his work.

Hailing from Stone Mountain, Georgia, Glover did not get his claim to fame as a rapper. Glover attended DeKalb School of the Arts and graduated from New York University with a degree in Dramatic Writing. In 2005, Glover was a writer for The Daily Show and from 2008 to 2009, wrote for the NBC hit series, 30 Rock, where he was awarded the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series. Glover can currently be seen on the NBC show, Community as Troy, the ex-football star. When asked about his music career, Glover stated, “I knew that…people would find out I’m a comedian before they know I do music, but I’ve been doing music long before any of that.”

Then we meet Childish Gambino…

I find Childish Gambino an interesting person with a very interesting name. You’ll never guess how he received the name—through an online Wu-Tang Clan name generator. Pretty neat, huh? I checked my name in two Wu-Tang name generators and was given the names Grand Moff Puppeteer and Zexy Swami. I think I like the second one better, but I digress. Since stepping on the music scene, Gambino has had seven releases—four albums, two mixtapes, and an EP. So, what’s the difference between Childish Gambino and Donald Glover? Absolutely nothing. Gambino, or should I say Glover, uses his comedic writing skills and uses them in his lyrics as well. Lines like, “he on BET and he got white people problems like…whole foods doesn’t have the juice I like so I have to go to, you know…Trader Joes and have it shipped to me” are plays on his “black boy raised white boy” persona.

CAMP, Gambino’s first studio album was released November 2011 and premiered at #2 on iTunes. Gambino purposely delivered an album that was not your typical, in the streets, flaunting money, jewelry, and women, type album. He describes this album as a “partial race thing- like, ‘black people don’t camp.’ Going to camp is also when you experience real life away from your parents…plus I wanted to deal with the ‘if you’re not black enough, you’re gay’ thing.” CAMP is an excellent album that leaves listeners wanting more. I am officially a fan of Childish Gambino or Donald Glover—whatever you choose to call him.

Childish Gambino’s latest mixtape, Royalty, was released July 4.