By Becky Monreal |Staff Writer|
Donald Glover can best be described as a quadruple threat.
He is in the process of conquering the worlds of comedy, writing, acting, and rapping.
Many know him from the hit comedy show Community, but Glover debuted in the television business way before it even aired. He use to write for the Emmy winning show 30 Rock before he landed the job as a lovable jock on Community.
So why leave a job writing for a comedy show that was sweeping every award program that it was nominated for?
“It was time for me to spread my wings,” said Glover in an interview with the Village Voice.
While Glover joined the comedic team behind Community, he also decided that it was time for him to work on another hip hop album.
Under the name Childish Gambino, Glover is releasing his fourth album, Camp, on Nov. 15.
Glover is known for his honest music in which he typically refers to himself as a “nerdy emo with a fro.”
Through his music, Glover will take his listeners back to a time when all he wanted to do was fit in at school.
As an African-American kid growing up in an suburban neighborhood, Glover suffered from stereotypes and tried to break himself free from them.
“They say there’s no place in hip-hop if you’re in the suburbs,” said Glover. “Kanye is a suburban kid. The struggle is finding your place.”
Yet finding his place is exactly what Glover did. He started writing stand up comedy material and would land a job writing for 30 Rock even before he graduated from New York University.
However, writing comedic material for a hit television show was not the only job that Glover wanted. He wanted to put his words into music and branch off into the music world.
Inspired by the Wu-Tang Clan, Glover created the alias ‘Childish Gambino’ and started writing his own music for his first album.
Four albums later, Glover is still writing his own music and selling out every arena that he books.
With the success from his third album, Culdesac, Glover did a tour with 23 stops across America and most of his gigs were sold out hours after tickets went on sale.
In addition to all of this, Glover also produced comedy sketches for YouTube videos with his group called Derrick Comedy. The videos became so popular that the group even produced the movie Mystery Team in 2009.
Camp is widely expected to receive the same kind of universal acclaim as his previous works.
Glover has also said he has no desire to slow down. He is currently working on writing a screenplay and setting up tour dates for Camp.
“If one day I can be a neo-Michael Jackson, I want that,” said Glover. “I don’t know if it is possible for someone to be that big anymore. But I want that.”
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