Beyond description
DONALD GLOVER’S RISE AS AN ARTIST IS DEFYING ANY AND ALL CLASSIFICATION
It’s time we took Donald Glover seriously. That might seem like an obvious statement to make about such a celebrated actor, writer, rapper and creator, but for many of those who discovered Glover’s endearing charm and knack for comedy when he played Troy Barnes in NBC’s Community, it can be difficult to separate the wizened Golden Globe- winning creator of FX’s Atlanta from the goofy sitcom character.
Although with a resumé that now places Glover in the upper echelon of showrunning newcomers and a critically acclaimed though effectively under- the- radar music career, this is a multihyphenate who deserves a little more recognition for the artist he’s grown into rather than the singular one for which he’s often recognized in the mainstream.
Atlanta itself came out of seemingly nowhere when it debuted last fall to nearly unanimous critical acclaim. Written by and starring Glover, the show has been steadily collecting awards recognition in the thick of awards season. Last Sunday, Glover won for both Best Comedy Series and Best Actor in a Comedy Series. The FX series follows two cousins making their way into the Atlanta rap scene, and offers perhaps the most intimate look into Glover’s perspective than we may ever get. Which is not to say that the series is autobiographical by any means, but it is an effort on his part to spotlight not only where he grew up, but a wholly realized facet of black culture on television, in which characters that may otherwise serve as tokens are finally subjects.
In his Golden Globes acceptance speech, Glover said, “My dad used to tell me every day, ‘ You can do anything you want.’ And I remember thinking as a kid in 1st grade: ‘You’re lying to me.’ But now I do stuff and he’s like, ‘I didn’t think that was possible.’ ”
And, it seems, neither did a lot of people who likely considered him a great addition to Community’s ensemble cast, but didn’t necessarily envision him wielding the type of cultural power he maintains. After dubbing Atlanta group Migos “the Beatles of this generation,” and giving their hit “Bad and Boujee” a shoutout at the Globes, the song instantly skyrocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
With Awaken My Love, the latest album under his Childish Gambino alias, Glover debuted at an impressive No. 5 on the Billboard 200 — not bad for an act that Vulture called “a hipster quirk, a side career.” Glover’s knack for sampling everyone from Sufjan Stevens to Grizzly Bear has made for apt comparisons between his own pigeonhole- defying creative output and his Gambino alter ego. It’s also led to difficulties for those attempting to classify Glover as one thing or another, inspiring lazy designations like “black hipster.”
With a love of comics and comedy, and having hung out in New York comedy circles after landing a job as a writer on 30 Rock under Tina Fey (all before graduating New York University), Glover found himself coming of Hollywood- age at a time when the “hipster/ nerd” was saturating pop culture. And because these scenes tend to be dominated by white people, as a person of colour, Glover stood out. In a 2011 interview with NOW Magazine, Glover said he resented the term, though. “I actually don’t mind being called a hipster if ‘ hipster’ means ‘ on the forefront of art and culture.' I do sometimes mind being called a ‘ black hipster’ or ‘ black nerd,’ though. Why is it necessary to add that? Am I supposed to like different stuff ?”
Not at all. In fact, it’s his fresh perspective that has given life to Childish Gambino and work like Atlanta. In creating his own space, Glover has managed to break out of the token black character mould, a shape that was made easier to escape thanks to his affinity and easy fit into “white culture.” In fact, when HBO’s Girls found itself critiqued for rarely offering a minority perspective, creator and star Lena Dunham hired Glover for a guest arc as her character’s black Republican boyfriend. Now with his own show from his own perspective, it seems fair to say that playing a source of absolution is firmly in Glover’s past.
If we look for an origin story to do with his rise, we might attribute it to the power of Marvel. After being rumoured and heavily hyped by several fans for the role of Miles Morales in the new Spider- Man ( post- Andrew Garfield, pre-Tom Holland), it became obvious that Glover could command a legion of fans willing to entrust him to shepherd in the first liveaction Spidey of colour. In his standup comedy special Weirdo, Glover said he heard of the campaign to get him cast and “ran with it” via social media, even getting an endorsement from Stan Lee.
While that didn’t pan out, the role that might give him nearly as much tentpole cred is that of the young Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars spinoff. It still might feel odd to envision Glover in an action/ adventure movie, but at one time, it also seemed strange to imagine him rapping and producing a critically acclaimed album or writing and creating an award- winning television drama.
Although his Han Solo spinoff doesn’t hit theatres until 2018, it’s safe to say that, by then, accomplishing “anything” might not be so surprising because he could have very easily accomplished “everything” an artist sets out to achieve.
I DO SOMETIMES MIND BEING CALLED A ‘BLACK HIPSTER’ OR ‘BLACK NERD.’