Childish Gambino “This Is America” debuted at #1

This Is America Childish Gambino

Writer(s): Donald Glover, Ludwig Göransson, Jeffery Lamar Williams (see lyrics here) Released: May 5, 2018 First Charted: May 19, 2018 Peak: 12 BB, 12 DG, 13 ST, 12 RB, 6 UK, 13 CN, 11 AU, 19 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 0.6 UK, 6.3 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 926.67 video, 588.71 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Actor, comedian, singer, rapper, writer, director, and producer. The multi-talented Donald Glover was born in 1983 on Edwards Air Force Base in California. After working with a comedy group called Derrick Comedy, he was hired as a writer for NBC’s 30 Rock in 2006. Three years later, he landed a job as one of the stars of the NBC sitcom Community. In 2016, he created and starred in the FX series Atlanta. He also starred in movies, most notably as a young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. He released his first album, Camp, in 2011 under the name Childish Gambino. Because the Internet followed in 2013 and Awaken, My Love! in 2016. Those were both top-ten albums, the latter featuring “Redbone,” a song which reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it was the freestanding single “This Is America” in 2018 which became his biggest hit. The song debuted at #1. Forbes’ Bryan Rolli called it “a vicious, urgent take on modern trap music.” WK Pitchfork’s Stephen Kearse said the song was a representation of the “tightrope of being black.” WK The song made Glover the first hip-hop artist to win Record of the Year and Song of the Year Grammys. It also won the Grammy for Best Music Video. The song started as “a humorous way of taking shots at Drake” SF but Glover realized the song “had the potential to be something powerful.” SF The lyrics and accompanying video evolved into a reflection of “the core of the Black Lives Matter movement, confront issues of ongoing systematic racism, including prejudice, racial violence, the ghetto, and law enforcement in the United States, as well as the wider issues of mass shootings and gun violence in the United States.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Childish Gambino SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 5/1/2024.