‘This is America,’ the Grammy Award-winning song from Childish Gambino, originated as a Drake diss, Donald Glover has revealed.
via: Vibe
Donald Glover’s “This Is America” took 2018 by storm due to its sociopolitical messaging and the variety of popular voices, such as Young Thug and 21 Savage, that appear on the record. The 39-year-old recently revealed that the track was initially planned to be a diss toward Drake.
Childish Gambino told GQ that he conceived the idea for the song in 2015 and intended for it to be humorous at first. “I told [director] Hiro [Murai] the idea, and he’s like, ‘I really want to do that,’” the GRAMMY winner 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.”
He continued, saying “It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this sh*t sounds kind of hard though. So I was like, let me play with it.” Glover’s desire to take a jab at Drake stemmed from his 2014 show in Sydney, Australia where he called out the 6 God, Kendrick Lamar, and Schoolboy Q and claimed they were inferior artists to him.
There was no true malice to his statement, but rather just the competitive nature of Hip-Hop, as he clarified in an interview with The Breakfast Club. “Every rapper should feel that way,” Gambino said. “I said those rappers in particular ’cause I feel like they’re the best. I feel like they’re the best. Kendrick, Drake, ScHooboy, I listen to them all the time […] Kendrick is fine with it. Drake is probably not taking it great.”
As for the iteration of “This Is America” that actually came out, the record went on to win Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year at the 2019 GRAMMYs.
The Awaken, My Love! artist won a plagiarism lawsuit over the hit at the end of last month after being sued by Kidd Wes in 2021. Wes claimed Gambino stole his flow, ripped him off, and infringed upon his copyright. The presiding judge ruled in favor of the “Redbone” artist, citing that although Wes copyrighted the recorded version of “Made In America,” he did not protect the actual music itself.
