One of America’s premiere artists is sweeping across television sets everywhere. He is a young man whose career started at the age of 25, and at the age of 29 he has become a nationally acclaimed television writer, comedian, rapper, and lyricist. He starred in the NBC show “Community”, wrote for the other NBC comedy “30 Rock”, and has become an acclaimed rapper with 5 studio albums/mixtapes. His name is Donald Glover (no relation to actor Danny Glover), and he is known as Tina Fey’s protege and Childish Gambino (his rap stage name).
The key to Glover’s success is how in touch he is with the current generations pop culture and his clever writing and comedic skills. He often references comedy from the 1990’s and beyond, thanks to his astute awareness of the American culture during the time. He grew up in a poor neighborhood and attended a predominantly black school until he was 8, and then his parents managed to save enough money to move to a better neighborhood and send him to a nicer school. Glover felt socially ostracized as a young man because of the many mixed signals his peers were sending him. Half of him was berated by his fellow black kids, who supported gang related activities and shirking of scholastic success. The other half was estranged from the middle class white children he found himself in contact with. His awkward childhood led to many profound changes that created the persona that Glover uses to this day to create truly appealing writing.