Gambino is a Mastermind

We're living in a new day. The barrier between what a person is perceived as and who they really are is crumbling away, like the TV images of the Berlin Wall in 1989. No one knows this better than Donald Glover, who sat down with Timmhotep Aku in an interview for Jay-Z's blog, Life and Times.

L+T: Much of your music deals with people’s stereotypes, their assumptions and the labels they put on others. It’s like you’re trying to say that the average young black person is a lot more complicated, and complex than a lot of people would give him or her credit for. Right?

DG: That’s exactly what it is. I think you touched upon it with labels. That’s exactly what it is. People want to label you because it’s easy to understand. It’s easy for someone to see a black person and assume they like all these things because then you don’t have to learn anything and you don’t have to find out who that person really is. It’s the same thing with me doing comedy and rapping. It’s easy to be like, “Oh OK, Donald Glover is a comedian and every time I see him he’s going to be funny.” That’s easy to do and I think we’re in a way more complex world. No one does one thing, ever. No one’s ever done one thing. People are different things at the same time. Sometimes I’ll get girls that’ll be like “your lyrics are misogynistic” and I’m like “yeah, they are.” Sometimes I’m misogynistic, [but] like who isn’t? Everybody’s racist sometimes. Everyone—black people, white people…

This is a quick and very insightful interview with an intelligent and talented young black man who wants nothing more than for "black" to be the least-defining of those traits. Definitely worth the read.

Life + Times: Me, Myself, and I