What Was Childish Gambino?

Glover was a far more promising prospect in Hollywood, and so Childish Gambino was a much riskier and much more interesting pivot. Glover didn’t turn to hip-hop to become cool. He turned to hip-hop to reveal how deeply uncool he was. He was enigmatic. He was provocative. He was a righteous loser who modeled youthful suburban rebellion on hypermoder... See more

Donald Glover does not dabble. He has maxed his stats in every category. Naturally, Bando Stone isn’t only an album but also a feature-length movie with a postapocalyptic sci-fi setup. (The first and only trailer to date didn’t reveal a release date, and the promotional website for Bando Stone only says it’s “coming soon to IMAX.”)

There’s still hip-hop, country, and pop radio, of course, but these are waning formats, as streaming has outgrown radio in terms of listenership, and streaming, rather unlike radio, has a way of collapsing all artists, fan bases, and subcultures into singular platforms. Modern artists furthermore take an expansive view of their own musical forms. P... See more