Just A Rapper - A case study on Donald Glover
This case study explores the influence Donald Glover has had in the creative industries and his success throughout his years in the spotlight. Glover is most known for his work as a multi-media creative, notably his projects under the moniker Childish Gambino. He began his career in 2006 when he sent writing samples to producer David Miner and Tina Fey who were so impressed that they took him onboard the NBC sitcom “30 Rock" as a writer with occasional acting appearance (Piccotti and Caruso, 2020).
One of Glover’s defining characteristics is how vocal he is about intersectionality. He often writes about his experience as a Black boy growing up working-class in America, describing his experience with a racial and class divide after moving from California to Stone Mountain, Georgia. This is most notable in his first and now disowned mixtape “The younger I get” (Childish Gambino, 2005). In this mixtape, the song “Black Kid” (Childish Gambino, 2005) describes his first experience with racism as a child. The most notable of which is his first encounter with colourism, “I was too white in my speech and my action/But other Black kids were too dark in complexion” (Childish Gambino, 2005) which expresses how he was perceived to speak and act too much like a white person despite being Black however he also observed the contradiction that other Black kids were “too dark” in their skin tone disregarding their behaviour.
In 2011, Glover released his debut studio album “Camp” (Childish Gambino, 2011) under the label Glassnote Records. Not only did this album give further insight to Glover’s upbringing, it also began his growth within the music industry with his single Heartbeat going platinum and being nominated for a Grammy. The songs within “Camp” (Childish Gambino, 2011) further express his struggle attempting to be seen as more than just his race and his family’s struggles with crime, poverty and alienation from less privileged family members. This album often leads back to his sentiments in “The Younger I Get” (Childish Gambino, 2005). For example, in the final song of “Camp,” “That Power” (Childish Gambino, 2011) he elaborates on the hypocrisy that he experienced growing up, “And every Black "you're not Black enough"/Is a white "you're all the same"” which clearly explains that the sentiment of being “Black enough” spoken by a Black person is a reflection of systemic racism.
Glover has also experienced a tumultuous relationship with labelling his sexuality. In an interview with Jamie Tabberer of Attitude magazine, he describes this trouble, stating that he never labelled his sexuality because he “never felt completely safe in just one place.” (Tabberer, 2020) Glover elaborates on this as he explains he felt very close to a White man until “He turned to me and said, ‘There are Black people and then there are n****s.’” (Tabberer, 2020). What makes Glover’s experience so impactful is how he internalised this racism. In the same interview, Glover states his father asked his feelings on the situation and he recalls, “I think I said, ‘I think I understand what he meant. And that really hurts me.’” (Tabberer, 2020) Which outwardly states that Glover understood that his former friend meant the racial slur as dehumanising as he separates who he verbally attacked from “Black people”. This anecdote then links back to his lyric, “And every Black "you're not Black enough"/Is a white "you're all the same"” (Childish Gambino, 2011).
Despite his acclaimed talent, Glover often receives criticism for aspects of his work containing misogynoir (Bailey, 2021), which refers to the unique, intersectional prejudice that Black women face. Glover often had an edgier tone when it came to his lyricism, this often leads to criticism as his lyricism in older work often is accused of being hateful towards Black women and fetishising Asian women. An example of misogynoir in his lyricism could be pulled from “Not going back” (Childish Gambino, 2011), where he states: “Relax, Black chick, I think that I have offended thee/Got nothing against the sisters, I just don’t think they’re into me.” This particularly comes across as misogynoir due to his language. A man telling a woman to “relax” is not inherently misogynistic however context matters. Glover is directly responding to claims that he doesn’t like Black women in this lyric, and in doing so he tells “Black chicks” to “relax” and Trisch (2022) explains why it’s so harmful to women, “People love to target women in the media by telling us to calm down when we voice our opinions which, in the long run, is only going to make us more angry.”
However, Glover’s misogynoir is also evident in his contemporary work. Swarm (Nabers and Glover, 2023) is a satirical dark comedy which follows Dre as she murders people who don’t like her favourite musician, Ni’jah. In a Vox article, Iqbal Muhammad (2023) states “Swarm’s misogynoir felt like a deeper, more direct insult to Black women than Glover’s previous projects.” Lead actress, Dominique Fishback, also went on record in an interview and described how she was given very little direction on Dre’s character, even quoting Glover saying “You don’t have to find the humanity in your character. That’s the audience’s job ... Think of it more like an animal and less like a person.” (Iqbal Muhammad, 2023) The misogynoir in this statement comes from the dehumanisation of Fishback’s character.
Despite valid criticism, Donald Glover has had a monumental impact on pop-culture, particularly through his 2018 song “This Is America” and his 4-season afro-surrealist drama, Atlanta. Glover initially debuted this single on May 5th while on Saturday Night Live, releasing the music video on May 6th (Childish Gambino, 2018). Within the first 24 hours of the music video, it gained an approximate 12.9 million views (Klein, 2018).
However, what made this music video amass so many views was the message behind it. The video begins slowly, a Black man sits down in a chair and begins to play an acoustic guitar then we pan over to Glover who begins dancing and pulling exaggerated facial expressions (Childish Gambino, 2018) which reflect the illustrations of the racist caricature, Jim Crow (Bain, 2018). Although the music video truly begins when Glover pulls out a gun and executes the man, who now wears a bag over his head (Childish Gambino, 2018). Since the release of this music video, debates and theories have circulated about the meaning behind it. Bain (2018) at The Guardian reflects on the violence which Glover shows to the audience, “the brutal violence and general mayhem is no different than daily life in the US, where guns, entrenched racism and police brutality against Black Americans dominate the headlines.” This reflection comes from Glover’s repeated lyric, “this is America” (Childish Gambino, 2018) as he incites senseless violence on Black civilians just to quickly return to energetic dancing. In the music video, Glover murders a gospel of Black choir singers which directly references the 2015 Charleston massacre when nine Black Americans were murdered by an anti-black mass shooter.
Donald Glover also garnered success with a previous release. “Awaken, My Love!” (Childish Gambino, 2016) is an album which takes a heavy turn in style, being described as “funk worship” by Pitchfork critic, Strauss (2016). “Awaken, My Love!” (Childish Gambino, 2016) is an evidently personal album to Glover, in an interview with Australia’s triple J radio he comments on his feelings during the creation of the album, “It was actually really hard. I was going through a lot, and I also think in America we’re going through a lot right now, with everything that’s going on.” (Dandridge-Lemco, 2016). In 2018, “Awaken, My Love!” was nominated for a Grammy (Variety Staff, 2018) however the sixth song on the track list clearly stood out the most as American filmmaker, Jordan Peele, chose it to headline his film, “Get Out” (Chinapen, 2021). “Redbone” is Glover’s most popular song (Dionne, 2017) and was chosen by Peele in order to create a sense of pleading with the main character, Chris, of his feature (Chinapen, 2021). The film opens with the chorus of the song, “Now stay woke. N***as creepin’. Now don’t you close your eyes.” (Childish Gambino, 2016) The lyrics implore Chris to keep his eyes open, although this is also a warning for the audience as the narrative initially leads the viewers into believing Chris’s White girlfriend is cheating on him but ultimately reveals her family lobotomises innocent Black men into becoming servants for their White family (Chinapen, 2021). Suddenly, the meaning behind “Redbone” becomes a warning when reframing with “Get Out”’s context, turning from a love song into a warning from Glover as he implores Black men to be cautious of their non-Black partner’s intentions (Chinapen, 2021).
Glover’s Atlanta similarly made headlines, each season having it’s own contained and distinct tone. Season one follows the rough beginnings of fictional rapper Alfred Miles under the stage name Paper Boi, as his cousin, Earnest Marks, attempts to manage him. Season 1 showcases Alfred’s initial hostility towards Earn and Earn’s own selfishness. In the very first episode, Alfred grows tired of Earn’s pleading and states, “I ain’t seen or heard from you since my mom’s funeral. And the first thing I hear out your mouth is ‘let’s get rich’.” (Glover, 2016b) Alfred’s anger towards Earn positions the audience into empathising with him, immediately setting up Earn as a flawed character due to his selfishness. However, in the same episode, Earn pulls strings and slides Alfred’s debut track under the door of a radio executive which pushes Alfred into agreeing to hiring him (Glover, 2016b). Although, the most highly acclaimed episode of Atlanta comes from season 2 (IMDb, 2016).
Episode 6 of the Robbin’ Season, “Teddy Perkins,” foll0ws Darius, Alfred’s roommate and the series’ comic relief character, as he attempts to pick up a piano with multi-coloured keys from the house of Teddy Perkins (Glover, 2018b). But what makes this episode stand out from the rest of the seasons is how much it leans into the horror of surrealism. Painted a ghoulish white, Donald Glover plays Teddy Perkins in this episode (Glover, 2018b), creating an uncanny valley effect as the audience can tell there’s something just a little off about his face. The horror also comes from the mystery behind Perkins and his brother, Benny. Perkins explains to Darius that Benny is wheelchair bound and he cannot go into the sun due to suffering from a skin-condition that debilitates him. However, when Darius attempts to empathise with his situation, “I can imagine”, Perkins startles both Darius and the viewer when he raises his voice, “No you can’t! You have no idea.” (Glover, 2018b) His empathy being met with such hostility disorients the audience as it contrasts so heavily with Darius’ sincerity, it also creates a sense of fear due to Perkins not showing such grand emotion before in the episode.
Adding to the horror, there’s clear links between Teddy Perkins and Michael Jackson within this episode, Teddy Perkins even makes direct reference to Jackson’s father when he shows Darius the “honouring room” stating he wishes to honour all great fathers (Glover, 2018b), the audience is expected to pick up on the irony of this statement and feel unsettled as to what Perkins considers great as Joe Jackson infamously physically and mentally abused his children in order to make them into great performers (Petridis, 2018). Velez (2022) further expands on the ties to Michael Jackson in a simple list, “the bleached skin, the abusive father, and the high-pitched voice. The mansion as a museum invokes Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch estate. Benny’s skin condition, which is a reference to Jackson’s alleged skin condition.” What made this episode so highly acclaimed was the commentary on how some view pain and creativity as being coexisting, using Michael Jackson as a blueprint, Teddy Perkins embodies the toxicity of this view as he directly says to Darius that he had been told “your brother plays pain better than anybody. Benny just played what he knew,” (Glover, 2018b) this chilling statement means Benny lived and died only knowing pain and his older brother, Teddy, enabled it instead of saving him, going further in stating “great things come from great pain.” (Glover, 2018b)
The factors which made Donald Glover a success were his beginnings in comedy. Glover rose to fame when he joined Dan Harmon’s sitcom “Community” (Mazumdar, 2017) although he had previously gained online notoriety for an online sketch on YouTube named “Bro Rape” (Browne, 2016). The sitcom had a rocky start but developed a cult following throughout the years, initially one note characters like Britta Perry or Abed Nadir are nearly unrecognisable from later seasons. Glover’s character in particular, Troy Barnes, goes from being a washed-up jock stereotype to a loveable himbo and a dubiously heterosexual friendship with Abed (Chow, 2020). However, at the end of season 5, Donald Glover made the difficult decision to leave the series entirely, wanting to instead focus on his music career (Chrysostomou, 2025). The beginning of his music career in 2011 had enthusiastic fans but also harsh critics, and Glover couldn’t seem to shake off the expectation that this was just a “side quirk” despite receiving two Grammy nominations for his second album (Browne, 2016). Following his departure from Community, Glover began to develop the idea of Atlanta and constructed a writer’s room of entirely Black writers (Browne, 2016).
Another factor that made Glover such a success was his continuous collaborations with his composer Ludwig Goransson (Diaz, 2025) and filmmaker, Hiro Murai (Browne, 2016). Ludwig Goransson had worked Donald Glover on the set of Community when they met and began musical work together, Glover continuously worked with Goransson for years following their initial projects together which allowed him to remain consistent with quality whilst simultaneously maintaining his visions across all of his albums (Diaz, 2025). Glover had chosen Hiro Murai to be his director for Atlanta, although he was met with concern as Murai hadn’t directed television before, but he held out hope stating “that’s how we made something personal. We’d do something and then start giggling and be like, ‘That’s tight, this is dope, I’d like to see that.’” (Browne, 2016).
In conclusion, Donald Glover repeatedly produces high works of art in both filmmaking and music. Donald Glover’s passion in his work aids his success as a multi-media personality and performer., Glover clearly puts great care into what he produces. His vocality on contemporary struggles such as intersectionality adds to his success. His repeated collaboration with Hiro Murai and Ludwig Goransson also aids him greatly as the two creatives repeatedly and consistently showcase their deep understanding of Glover’s own creative visions, creating phenomenal works of art that resonates with audiences alike. Although Glover is retiring the moniker Childish Gambino, he does not have any intention of ceasing his creative endeavours, stating he feels as if he’s fulfilled with the work he’s done under the name, and he wishes to move forward (Saponara, 2024). Glover expresses his fulfilment with the Childish Gambino project in an interview stating, “When I put my son on my shoulders, I feel deep joy. That’s real. No one on their deathbed is going to look back and say, ‘Thank God I avoided being cringe.'” (Saponara, 2024) Expressing how he’s now outgrown the moniker, the same way he outgrew his role in Community although, he never states this is the end for Donald Glover as a whole.