Childish Gambino is hard at work on his third album, STN MTN / KAUAI, and is coming off the Hot 100 hit "3005" from his most recent record, Because The Internet. Now he feels like he is on top of his game and is no longer threatened by another actor-turned-rapper: Drake. As Billboard notes, Gambino (born Donald Glover) spoke with Hot 97's Pete Rosenberg last night at the Grammy Museum's Clive Davis Theater in downtown L.A. about his career and later took the stage to perform a short 5-song set, which included his freshly released track "Sober," for a small group of attendees.
When asked whether he has beef with Drake, Glover clarified where he stands with the Toronto rapper, following his freestyle that declared, "Nah, I ain't Drake. I sing better. I do better. My sh*ts wetter."
"I don't want people to think that I hate Drake," he insisted. "I don't hate Drake at all. I really like Drake, if not for no other reason than he makes me better. He really does, for real. I had to fight that. I knew when I was doing Childish Gambino from the beginning, like, 'They're not gonna let me do this because they already have an actor/singer/rapper guy who's black.' If he was white, it would be different, because they'd be like, 'They're not the same.' It's very specific.
"But I don't dislike Drake," he continued, followed by a backhanded compliment. "I think he's a really good writer and rapper. Right now, I definitely think I'm better than him, but only because I'm working harder than him right now. If he came in right now like, 'Let's rap,' I'd be like, 'Oh, I'mma kill you.' But like right now. Maybe he's got something up his sleeve."
Other than his non-beef with Drake, Glover talked about the release of his new track "Sober," which has been compared to the work of Michael Jackson.
"It's Michael Jackson-esque," he noted. "It's weird, because I never said that. I mean, we would hear it, but I was like, 'I can't say that.' Like, 'I did it just like the best performer ever.' I just wanted to have that feeling. I just don't think there's that feeling anymore. ... Michael Jackson is just short-term for something that lasts a long time and you care about."
One thing Glover wants to have in common with the King Of Pop is having his music be as important and thought about.
"I want everything I do to be an event," he said. "I dropped 'Sober' -- we drop our things on Sunday so people will think about them. You know when you put them out on, like, Tuesday, people will be like, 'Oh, Donald's got a new song! And so does Rick Rozay!' No one's gonna think about it. On Sunday, everybody's chillin', the Internet's quiet, and then they have all Sunday to think about it, like, 'OK, what is this song about? Do I like this song? Or does the dude who tweeted it hate it so I have to say I hate it too because I'm not uncool?' I want people to like it... and maybe they hate it, but [at least] they think about it."
Check out his performance of "Sober" below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
