Redbone

Childish Gambino Wishes People Could Hear The ‘Weird’ First Version Of ‘Redbone’

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Childish Gambino, real name Donald Glover, has made weirdness into a pretty lucrative career. Of course, in the beginning, his music wasn’t received as well. Just listen to his story about being booed while opening for Kid Cudi. Fast-forward to the present day and the multihyphenate talent has developed the creative formula to covert creepiness into a financial cash cow (see: Swarm).

During a recent interview with GQ, Gambino said that not all of his weird ideas get to see the light of day. When discussing his breakout Grammy Award-winning song “Redbone,” the musician revealed that the version that fans have come to love wasn’t the first version of the track.

“I wish you guys could hear the first version of ‘Redbone,’” exclaimed Gambino before bursting into laughter. “It was so weird. I was actually listening to it the other day. I was like, ‘what a weird song this was.’ Then [Ludwig Göransson and I] cleaned it, and we were like, ‘oh yeah.’”

“Redbone” was released in November of 2016, which marked Gambino’s long-awaited return to music. The song appeared on his third studio album, Awaken, My Love!, which interpolated elements of the 1975 funk classic “I’d Rather Be With You” by Bootsy’s Rubber Band. The song went on to earn the recording artist several awards, including a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance.

Watch the full interview above.

Donald Glover Reveals The ‘Extremely Petty’ Reason That Pushed Him To Make ‘Awaken, My Love!’

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Donald Glover 2018 iHeartRadio fest
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After the success of his second album Because The Internet, Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, reached new heights in 2016 with the release of his third album Awaken, My Love! The project was a large shift in the sound that was present on Because The Internet, as Glover had songs that featured him singing as opposed to rapping along with production that combined psychedelic soul, funk, and R&B. As of today, Awaken, My Love! is Glover’s most successful album and during a recent appearance on LeBron James’ HBO show The Shop, he explained what inspired him to create the album.

“Did you ever tap into something that is in you that you feel is kind of bad to win?” Childish Gambino asked the group that included Lebron and Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson. “Because I struggle with that. I am naturally petty. Like, extremely petty” He revealed that he made Awaken, My Love! to prove an unnamed critic wrong. “Awaken, My Love was literally because somebody said, ‘Oh, he can’t make a hit.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, not only will I make a hit, I won’t make a single video for it.’”

After its release in December 2016, Awaken, My Love became his highest-charting release after it debuted at No. 5 on the albums chart. The project also birthed Glover’s most successful single with “Redbone” which peaked at No. 12 on the singles chart and is currently 5X Platinum.

You can view the clip from the upcoming episode above. The full episode airs on March 4 at 9 am PST exclusively on UNINTERRUPTED’s YouTube channel.