Donald Glover Eases Door Open on Potential Childish Gambino Return: ‘I Still Really Love Making Music’

Donald Glover said he was ready to hang up the mic in 2024 after the release of what he suggested was his final album under his nom de rap Childish Gambino, Bando Stone & The Brave New World. “It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done.’ It’s not fulfilling,” Glover said at the time. “And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”

But, like a boxer who just can’t quit the sweet science, the Super Mario Bros. Galaxy star seems to be on the fence about totally retiring his Grammy-winning side hustle. At the Japanese premiere of the video game adaptation movie this week Glover was being interviewed by an Entertainment Tonight reporter when he was hit with a question — a statement, really — that made him admit he still loves making music.

“The streets aren’t very happy with you, with the news that you said Childish Gambino is done,” she lightheartedly said to a smiling Glover as the reporter went on to note that she’d recently read an article in which Glover’s frequent collaborator, Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, said he was taken off guard that Gambino is a thing of the past.

“Why are you putting me out there?” Glover asked playfully. “I still really love making music. I don’t think that’s ever going to go away. I love making it. Even if that’s for myself. Even if it’s just … I have plenty of songs that are, like, just for me. And I’m not saying, like, ‘oh I’m like hoarding them.'”

When the reporter teasingly wondered, “why are you being greedy?,” Glover opened his eyes wide and doubled-down, saying, “I just … I just love making it! … I like telling stories. So like, if I can make something that I’m like, ‘Oh, people should hear this,’ I definitely will put it out.”

Glover has released five studio albums under his alter ego, as well as more than a dozen mixtapes and four EPs. His third album, 2016’s “Awaken My Love!” was his highest charting LP on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 5 while spending 124 weeks on the chart, followed by 2013’s Because the Internet (No. 7, 142 weeks on the chart), 2011’s Camp (No. 11, 24 weeks on the chart) and 2020’s 3.15.20 (No. 13, three weeks on the chart.)

In addition, his 2018 Grammy-winning single “This Is America” — co-written with Göransson and Young Thug — peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Other charting Gambino singles include 2016’s “Redbone” (No. 12), 2018’s “Summertime Magic” (No. 44) and 2018’s “Feels Like Summer” (No. 54), among others.

Watch Glover talk about the status of Childish Gambino below.