Donald Glover Explains Why He's Retiring Childish Gambino

Donald Glover has opened up on why he's planning to retire his Childish Gambino rap moniker.

June 6, 2017

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Complex Original

Over the weekend, Donald Glover hopped on the Governors Ball stage to perform what he said was his only Childish Gambino performance of 2017. During said performance, Glover made mention of seeing us "for the last Gambino album."

For anyone doubting that Glover would indeed be hanging up his career as Childish Gambino, he's doubling down on his claims that Childish Gambino isn't "necessary" anymore. In some comments to Huff Po during a promo event for his hit FX series Atlanta, he compared his time as a musician to the stale state of movies. "There’s nothing worst than like a third sequel, like a third movie and we’re like, ‘again?’" he told Huff Po. "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."

Glover also spoke on "Redbone" being "a punk song" in the sense that, as he describes it, "Redbone" is "a gospel song on the radio," but it sounds like he doesn't want to pigeonhole himself, saying "there's only so far you can go before you just are the radio."

"I feel like there's gotta be a reason to do things," Glover said.

Even with "Redbone" peaking at No. 17 this week, Glover's Hollywood plate is super full. He's set to appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming this July, is going to be in the live-action adaptation of The Lion King voicing Simba, and will be developing an animated Deadpool series for FXX, as well as finding time to mold season 2 of Atlanta. Maybe there's just not enough hours in his days to churn out another Childish Gambino project, especially when Hollywood's hitting his line now more than ever.