Donald Glover to retire Childish Gambino alias: "It's not fulfilling"

Donald Glover has put an end to speculation and announced that he’s retiring his Childish Gambino alias.

The final album of the Childish Gambino era, ‘Bando Stone & The New World’, landed today (July 19). The record follows the release of two recent singles from the project, the rock-tinged ‘Lithonia’, and ‘In The Night’, which features Ammarae and Jorja Smith.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Glover revealed the reason for his decision to leave the moniker behind, explaining: “It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done'. It’s not fulfilling. And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”

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Other reasons cited by Glover included the increased difficulties of making an album in the modern day, with a huge set of obligations including his ongoing film and TV projects. He also spoke about the decline of album consumption in the modern day, as well as increased difficulties with touring schedules.

Glover spoke about how his ideas of success have changed, from where he once might have tried to push himself into the industry, now he attributes success as “being able to put out a wide-scale album that I would listen to".

His co-manager, Fam Udeorji, said that he wants people to listen back to Glover's new album in the future and remember “what they felt like in the summer of ’24”.

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'Bando Stone & The New World' is to be the soundtrack of a forthcoming movie by Glover which will share the same name as the project, set in apocalyptic times. The film's release date is yet to be announced.

Glover recently released a surprise album, ‘Atavista’, which was said to be a “finished version” of his 2020 project ‘3.15.20’. He also recently confirmed the dates of his 2025 New World Tour, which will see him play shows across the UK, Europe and Australia.

[Via New York Times]

Listen to ‘Bando Stone & The New World’ here.

Jamaal Johnson is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow him on Instagram