Childish Gambino reveals his hit song 'This Is America' was originally a 'Drake diss'

Publish date: 2024-08-03
2023-04-05T23:30:00Z

Childish Gambino revealed in a recent interview that his biggest hit to date, "This Is America," was originally conceived as a diss track aimed at Drake.

"Time is the oven that makes something special," he said in a video for GQ. "I had that idea like, three years before."

"The idea for the song started as a joke," he continued. "And it started as a Drake diss, to be honest. As like, a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, 'This shit sounds kinda hard, though.' You know? So I was like, 'Let me play with it.'"

Gambino said the song began with just the titular phrase. It evolved into something bigger after he approached director Hiro Murai with a vision for the music video.

Gambino also revealed that he and Murai "studied" Michael Jackson's "Thriller" for inspiration

"I was like, 'How do you make something, how do you make people care about anything anymore?' There's just so much shit," he said, joking that it became "a 'We are the World' for trap."

The multihyphenate, whose real name is Donald Glover, released "This Is America" as a standalone single in 2018. It was widely interpreted as a political anthem and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It went on to become the first rap song in history to win both record and song of the year at the Grammys.

"To me, culture is just compression of information," Gambino continued. "So I was like, all of it needs to be compressed into this moment. So what was happening needed to feel like it could only be happening right now."

"It's interesting that it worked," he added.

Gambino previously criticized Drake during an onstage freestyle in 2014.

"Nah, I ain't Drake. I sing better. I do better. My shit's wetter," he rapped.

"I'm the best rapper, definitely top five," he continued. "I'll cut their heads off, that's every rapper living. That's Kendrick, that's Drake, that's ScHoolboy, that's everyone. I don't give a fuck."

The same year "This Is America" was released, Drake was embroiled in a feud with Pusha T, which came to a head with the devastating diss track "The Story of Adidon."

In the song, Pusha T claimed that Drake was hiding a son he had with a "porn star" and accused his fellow rapper of being a "deadbeat" dad.

Drake later confirmed he fathered a child with former adult-film actor Sophie Brussaux.

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