While Donald Glover’s 2018 Childish Gambino single “This Is America” received widespread critical acclaim on its release, its reception would have been vastly different if it remained the humorous Drake diss it was intended to be.
“This Is America” was heralded as a statement on gun violence, race, and police brutality in America upon its release. However, according to Donald Glover the song was never meant to be that deep, and his original plan was to diss Drake.
During his wide-ranging GQ cover story, Donald Glover revealed the idea behind the song originated in 2015. At the time, he wanted to diss Drizzy but in a comedic fashion.
“I told [director] Hiro [Murai] the idea, and he’s like, ‘I really want to do that,’” the Swarm co-creator said. “The idea for the song started as a joke. To be completely honest, ‘This is America’ — that was all we had was that line.”
Nonetheless, he had second thoughts after working on the song and decided to go in a different direction.
“It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this s### sounds kind of hard though. So I was like, let me play with it,” he added. Check out a clip from the interview below and watch the “This Is America” video at the end of the page.
Donald Glovers reveals his hit song “This is America” was originally a Drake DISS!
— TheGMSshow (@TheGMSshow) April 4, 2023pic.twitter.com/pNIvDr7lmc
Donald Glover Backtracked On Drake Diss But Made History
The decision proved to be a solid one. “This Is America” was one of the most well-received videos in recent history and was universally praised by music critics. The song earned Donald Glover his first Billboard Hot 100 No.1 and topped the charts worldwide.
In addition, “This Is America” was nominated for four Grammys at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards and bagged them all. He made history winning Record of the Year and Song of the Year, the first rap song ever to win both categories.