Donald Glover reveals why he's retiring the Childish Gambino moniker
“I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things,” he said.
Donald Glover hinted at a final Childish Gambino album during his standout Governors Ball performance, and he later elaborated on those statements.
While at an event to promote his hit TV show Atlanta this week, Glover told HuffPost that he’s retiring the Childish Gambino act.
“There’s nothing worst than like a third sequel, like a third movie and we’re like, ‘again?’” he said. “You know, I like it when something’s good and when it comes back there’s a reason to come back, there’s a reason to do that.”
“Like I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things and I always had a reason to be punk,” he continued. “Being punk just always felt really good to me and we always looked at ‘Atlanta’ as a punk show and I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore. As much as ‘Redbone’ is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio.”
It’s unclear if Glover means that he’s retiring from music altogether, or if he’s just retiring the persona of Childish Gambino, a moniker he famously came up with from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator online. But if he did stop making music, he’d leave behind quite the discography: the next album would be his fourth studio LP, in addition to seven mixtapes and two EPs. His latest record Awaken, My Love peaked at no. 5 on the Billboard 200, and the single “Redbone” hit no. 1 on the Adult R&B chart and no. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Either way, between Atlanta, the apparent final Gambino album, and his other films and TV shows, we still have more creativity to look for from Donald Glover.