THE MUSICIAN

Throughout his entire acting and comedic career, Glover worked on the craft which he would become most known for: his music.  In June of 2008, Glover released his first public mixtape, entitled Sick Boi.  Beginning in 2009, he released four separate mixtapes in just under one year: Poindexter (September 2009), I Am Just a Rapper (2010), I Am Just a Rapper 2 (2010), and Culdesac (July 2010).  

A little under a year later in March 2011, Glover released an extended play titled EP and announced his first tour as Childish Gambino, IAMDONALD Tour, which began the following month.  The shows in this tour consisted of both rap performances and comedy segments. Later in the same year, Glover launched his second tour, The Sign-Up Tour,  and in November 2011, Glover released Camp, his first studio album.  Camp and its singles made several Top 100 Charts and sold over 50,000 copies in the first week.  Glover began his third tour, Camp Gambino, in April 2012 and throughout the Spring and early-Summer of 2012, he released several songs from his sixth mixtape, Royalty, which he released in July.  

Glover’s second studio album, Because the Internet, debuted at number seven on the Billboard Top 200 chart upon its release in December 2013 and has been certified gold, selling over 500,000 copies.  Glover embarked on his fourth tour, The Deep Web Tour, in February 2014. He released a mixtape and an extended play on October 2 and October 3, 2014, titled STN MTN and Kauai, respectively.  Glover donated all profits from Kauai to saving Kauai island and changing policies on body video cameras for police officers to wear.  In December 2016, Glover released his third studio album Awaken, My Love!, which peaked at number five on the Billboard Top 200 chart and was certified gold after selling 500,000 copies.

At a performance in June 2017, Glover announced to the audience his plans to retire from his music career and his Childish Gambino persona after his next album.  Glover released a single called This is America in May 2018 and it debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  A few months later in July 2018, Glover released an extended play Summer Pack and his fifth and final tour, the This Is America Tour.

All of Glover’s early music is rap.  In his songs, Glover often talked about how his style and lyrics were different because he did not have the same experiences of other rappers; he was not a gangster rapper.  With the release of Awaken, My Love!, Glover slightly changed his style by singing more than he rapped on the album.  He also was clearly influenced by soul, funk, and rhythm and blues music. Glover has publicly cited LCD Soundsystem, Ghostface Killah, Outkast, Migos, and Funkadelic as being influences.  Donald Glover has been nominated for 114 awards and has won 34 for both his television appearances and his music.