Donald Glover Says ‘This Is America’ Started As A Drake Diss

Donald Glover ‘Childish Gambino’ Admits ‘This Is America’ Was Orginally A Drake Diss

Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino 2018 single “This Is America” is his biggest hit but he says that the origins of the song are not what everybody thinks.

“I had the idea three years before. I told [director] Hiro [Murai] the idea, and he’s like, ‘I really want to do that,'” he told GQ magazine.

“The idea for the song started as a joke. To be completely honest, ‘This is America’ — that was all we had was that line.”

He continued, “It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this sh-t sounds kind of hard though. So I was like, let me play with it.”

Glover also revealed he failed to make the SNL auditions twice but he’s thankful he did.

“I dodged so many bullets,” Glover said. “Me being on ‘SNL’ would’ve killed me…But if I got on ‘SNL,’ my career wouldn’t have happened,” he said, adding, “And thank God.”

In 2018, Glover released “This Is America”, which debuted at number-one on the Hot 100 and won four Grammy Awards, including for Song and Record of the Year. Glover’s fourth album, 3.15.20, was released in 2020.