Donald Glover has explored no shortage of creative ventures over the years, though his latest endeavour may just be one of his best. On Friday (March 17), Amazon Prime Video dropped off Swarm, the 39-year-old’s new TV series that features plenty of celebrity favourites, including Paris Jackson and Billie Eilish. If that’s not enough to convince you to check it out, minutes into the first episode, a raunchy sex scene between Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris has had Twitter talking non-stop.
Swarm tells the story of Dre (played by Dominique Dishback), a young woman with a dangerous obsession for a fictional pop star named Ni’jah. Throughout the episodes we see the troubled lead go to great lengths to defend her idol, voiced by singer-songwriter KIRBY. To accompany his new project, Glover and his musical collaborator shared a six-track EP today, allowing fans to live on in the chilling cinematic universe even after they’re done binge-watching.
Childish Gambino and KIRBY Bring Ni’jah to Life on “Sticky” from Swarm
As Billboard notes, this marks Glover’s first musical effort since 3.15.20, which arrived as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning. The California native connected with Ariana Grande and 21 Savage on “Time” and “12.38” respectively. Other fan favourites from the 12-song tracklist include “Algorhythm,” “19.10,” and “35.31.”
Of course, Swarm isn’t the multi-talent’s first time diving into the world of television. He’s previously appeared on shows like 30 Rock, Girls, and Community. Additionally, he created and stars in FX’s Atlanta alongside LaKeith Stanfield and Brian Tyree Henry. As for film credits, Glover’s face has been seen in Magic Mike XXL, The Martian, and Solo: A Star Wars Story, among others.
Thus far, the new show appears to be making a positive impression on viewers. Thankfully, all seven episodes landed at the same time, filling up the weekend plans of many eager viewers. At the time of publication, Rotten Tomatoes critics have scored it at an 83%, though we’re still waiting for audience reviews to start rolling in.
Check out “Sticky” from Childish Gambino and KIRBY’s Swarm EP on YouTube above. Afterward, tell us your thoughts on the show and its groovy soundtrack in the comments. If you’re in need of more release recommendations, make sure to check back later this weekend for our R&B Season playlist update.
Donald Glover’s new seriesSwarm debuted this morning but Chlöe Bailey and Damson Idris have already stirred up the timeline. Within the first five minutes of the first episode of the BeyHive-inspired series, Dre (Dominique Fishback) catches her sister Marissa Jackson (Bailey) and her boyfriend Khalid (Idris) having sex. Chöe previously revealed she filmed a love scene for Swarm. Still, no one thought it would be this early in the series.
It didn’t take long for Twitter to come through with its takes. “Damson Idris is shooting such scenes with Chloe Bailey and going home to Lori Harvey ??” one person wrote. Others wondered why people made a huge deal out of it. “y’all were doing a lot last night over chloe sex scene in swarm… like it was never that serious it’s called acting and it took a lot for her to even do the scene,” the user wrote.
Chlöe Says Damson Made Her Feel “Comfortable” During Shoot
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 14: (L-R) Dominique Fishback, Donald Glover, Chloe Bailey, Janine Nabers, and Damson Idris attend the “Swarm” Red Carpet Premiere and Screening in Los Angeles at Lighthouse Artspace LA on March 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Arnold Turner/Getty Images for Prime Video)
Though Chlöe is no stranger to film and television, Swarm marked the first time she filmed a love scene. During an interview with Deadline, Bailey explained that the script left her in awe when she first read it. However, she realized only afterward that she needed to film an intimate scene with Idris’ character. “I first read the script, I was like, ‘Oh, this is insane, this is incredible,’ and I cried, and then I realized, you gotta do that sex scene, girl,’” she said.
Chlöe was frightened to shoot with Damson, though he ensured that she felt as comfortable as possible on set. “As open and liberal as I am about my body, I was very scared because I haven’t had that many partners,” Bailey explained. “I’m not like that—like that sexual and open. Damson made it really comfortable; you know, there were limited people on set. It was a closed set.” Check out the reactions below.
y’all were doing a lot last night over chloe sex scene in swarm… like it was never that serious it’s called acting and it took a lot for her to even do the scene. pic.twitter.com/6WimpaZoOi
— i be like… DO IT 4 MY BABY! (@SUCKAW0RLD) March 17, 2023
Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, dropped the first glimpse of his new feature on “Sticky,” through the trailer for the upcoming Amazon Prime series, Swarm. The track is a collaboration with Kirby and Ni’Jah and gives off a spooky and psychedelic feel — fitting for the tone of the show.
“Sticky-icky / Somebody’s watching, so watch your back / Don’t look back, look at the mess you’ve made,” the song’s clip says.
Glover, who created the series alongside Janine Nabers, based the premise around a woman who is obsessed with a pop star. It stars Dominique Fishback, Chlöe Bailey, and Damson Idris.
“We just thought it’d be fun to make a post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King Of Comedy,” he told Vanity Fair earlier this year, naming films that influenced the project. “Me and my brother Stephen were talking about finding someone like Isabelle Huppert, as far as risk-takers in performances.”
“A lot of people did it out of the kindness of their hearts and they did a really great job,” Glover added. “Dom, Damson, Chloe. I was really blown away at how hard they worked on the tone, ’cause it’s a strange one.”
Check out the Swarm trailer — which features Ni’Jah, Kirby, and Childish Gambino’s “Sticky” — above.
Childish Gambino has previewed a snippet of an unreleased track titled, “Sticky.” The song is featured in a teaser for Donald Glover’s upcoming Amazon series, Swarm. “Original music from the new series “Swarm” by Ni’Jah with Kirby featuring Childish Gambino,” a description for the trailer reads.
“Sticky-icky/ Somebody’s watching, so watch your back/ Don’t look back, look at the mess you’ve made,” Gambino sings on the track. Glover hasn’t released any new solo material since 2020’s 3.15.20 but has collaborated with several artists in the last three years. They include Thundercat, Steve Lacy, Latto, Lil Wayne, and more.
Donald Glover At The Vanity Fair Oscar Party
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Donald Glover attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Dinner Arrivals at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
In total, Amazon shared two new teasers for the highly-anticipated show. The cast features Dominique Fishback, Chloe Bailey, and Damson Idris. The story follows a young woman who’s obsessed with a fictional pop star. Speaking with Variety back in January, Glover cited Isabelle Huppert’s iconic performance in The Piano Teacher as an inspiration. “We just thought it’d be fun to make a post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy,” he told the outlet. “Me and my brother Stephen were talking about finding someone like Isabelle Huppert, as far as risk-takers in performances. A lot of people did it out of the kindness of their hearts and they did a really great job. Dom, Damson, Chloe. I was really blown away at how hard they worked on the tone, ’cause it’s a strange one.”
Janine Nabers, who serves as showrunner and co-creator to Glover, recently admitted that the series will either make viewers “angry or really inspired.” “We know that the show is propulsive,” she warned at the South by Southwest Film & Television Festival. She continued: “We know that it’s going to evoke a lot of conversation. We know that people are going to have a lot of responses and may be angry or really inspired. So I just want you guys to know that if you have any feelings after watching this, and if you really want to tweet about it, then tweet at Donald.”
Physical intimacy is one of the most vulnerable things two humans can share. Having to perform it (or at least fake it) in front of a camera crew and Hollywood executives adds all the more pressure. Recently, Chloe Bailey experienced this for the first time on the set of Donald Glover’s Swarm series. Thankfully, she had a great partner – British actor Damson Idris – to help her through the terrifying scene.
Ahead of the series premiere, the R&B artist and other members of the cast spoke with Deadline. “When I first read the script I was like, ‘Oh, this is insane,’” Bailey recalled. “‘This is incredible.’ I cried, and then I realized, ‘You gotta do that sex scene girl.’” She’s relatively open and liberal with her body (as her regular Instagram thirst traps can attest). Still, her lack of past sexual partners apparently made filming all the more nerve-wracking.
“I was very scared because I haven’t had that many partners,” the “Treat Me” songstress told Deadline. “I’m not like that, that sexual and open. Damson made it very comfortable, you know, there were limited people on set,” she added. According to Bailey, she and Idris even shared a few laughs between takes. They also kept a bouncy ball between their bodies. “We were making a joke out of it,” she said, noting that her co-stars’ good vibes wiped away her nervousness.
“I have to give a lot of kudos to him as a man for making me as a woman feel comfortable literally being raw and naked,” the 24-year-old praised Lori Harvey’s boyfriend. Other famous faces set to appear on screen include Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris, as Hailey, and Dominique Fishback in the leading role of Dre. The trailer for Swarm arrived last month, and already, audiences can’t wait to see what Glover’s next project will bring.
Donald Glover’s Swarm
The highly anticipated series officially premiered at SXSW this past Friday (March 10), and will arrive on Amazon Prime Video next week, on March 17. It tells the story of, “a young woman whose obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn.” Check out the teaser above. Afterward, let us know if you’ll be tuning in to catch Chloe Bailey’s performance in the comments.
While receiving vast recognition from a global audience may seem like the ultimate trophy of success, becoming famous isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. In fact, reaching high tiers of fame is accompanied by its own troubles. Five-time Grammy award-winner Chlöe has been garnering high anticipation for her upcoming projects. This month alone, she’ll be dropping her debut solo album In Pieces as well as revealing her starring role in Swarm.
Swarm, which is due to premiere on March 17th, is another television effort created by Donald Glover alongside Janine Nabers. The show follows an obsessive fan girl whose seemingly innocent fascination with a pop star becomes twisted and dark. The horror-thriller reportedly gained inspiration from Beyoncé’s Beyhive. Chlöe, who initially was under the iconic singer’s apprenticeship while in Chlöe X Halle, has been building up her independent career in recent years. In reflection on the upcoming series, the 24-year-old sat down with Pop Crave to dive deep into experiencing fame.
Chlöe Opens Up About Social Media Hate
One of the main topics discussed throughout the web interview was social media fame, which Chlöe opened up honestly about. Initially, she describes what she’s thankful for, telling the outlet “you know, for me and how I practice being healthy in terms of the social media world, sometimes I have to step away from it. It’s such a huge blessing.” She reflects, “because of it, there’s people who know about me, I can connect with my fans online, and that’s how people discovered my sister and I from YouTube. I know I would not be here and be able to do what I love, make money off of it, and live off of it without social media, right?”
But, Chlöe isn’t shy of noting problems with growing a large online following. “Now also, with anything good comes bad,” she says, “people are completely entitled to have any opinions about anything, and I have to come to terms that I can’t please everybody.” The Atlanta native further describes, “in everyday life, I just want everyone to feel comfortable, almost to the point where I’ll sacrifice my comfortability. But I think the past year and a half, I’m like, ‘You know what? I know God’s proud of me, I’m proud of me, and I’m just happy people are talking.’” For more news on hip-hop and pop culture, be sure to check out HNHH.
Chlöe sat down with Pop Crave to dissect Swarm — specifically, what she hopes viewers garner “about healthy social media use.”
“You know, for me and how I practice being healthy in terms of the social media world, sometimes I have to step away from it,” she said. “It’s such a huge blessing. Because of it, there’s people who know about me, I can connect with my fans online, and that’s how people discovered my sister and I from YouTube. I know I would not be here and be able to do what I love, make money off of it, and live off of it without social media, right?”
She continued, “Now also, with anything good comes bad. People are completely entitled to have any opinions about anything, and I have to come to terms that I can’t please everybody. In everyday life, I just want everyone to feel comfortable, almost to the point where I’ll sacrifice my comfortability. But I think the past year and a half, I’m like, ‘You know what? I know God’s proud of me, I’m proud of me, and I’m just happy people are talking!’”
Swarm is a new horror series starring Dominique Fishback. The co-executive producers are Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino and creator of HBO’s Watchmen, Janine Nabers. The series is coming to Prime Video this month on March 17th. It also stars Chloe Bailey and Snowfall star, Damson Idris.
Fishback plays a fan that obsesses over a famous pop star and it consumes her life. In the trailer, it’s clear the pop star’s character is influenced by Beyonce. The “BeyHive” is one of the biggest fandoms ever. The series will first premiere at the SXSW festival on March 10th. Nabers calls it “a sister to Atlanta” while Glover says it’s “a post-truth The Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy”.
Here’s everything we know so far about Donald Glover’s new series.
Dominique Fishback is Swarm‘s Star
After being told she wasn’t cut out to be an actress and denied from acting school, Dominique Fishback sure has done well for herself. She did not let those obstacles deter her as she aspired to be on the big screen. Hailing from Brooklyn, Fishback went to public schools in her neighborhood, but also took free acting classes for kids in New York. Ultimately, she was able to participate in her theater course where she learned more about acting and writing her own plays.
Fishback attended Pace University in New York and graduated with a degree in theater. With her degree and experience writing her own material in her theater course, Fishback decided to put on her own show, Subverted.Subverted was a one woman show that was written and performed solely by Fishback. After this, she took off!
She landed roles in films such as Night Comes On, The Hate U Give, Project Power, and most notably, Judas and The Black Messiah. Her role in Judas and The Black Messiah as Deborah Johnson, partner of Fred Hampton, led her to be nominated for a BAFTA award as well as an NAACP Image Award. The New York native is also set to star in the third installment of the Transformers series. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to be released this year.
The 31-year-old has also appeared in different TV series throughout her career. Fishback has appeared in episodes of The Affair, The Americans, Blue Bloods, Royal Pains, Show Me a Hero, and most notably, The Deuce. Along with being the star of Swarm, she has a main role on the Apple+ TV series, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, starring alongside Samuel L. Jackson. All of Fishback’s hard work has been paying off as she is very busy these days.
Atlanta, FX Ties
After watching Atlanta, we know what Donald Glover can bring to the table. The four season series was certainly not your typical TV show. Glover’s ability to combine many different topics including family, Hip Hop, love, fatherhood, and friendship separates him from the rest.
In the trailer, fans can see that this series is influenced by Beyoncé as Childish Gambino continues to stick to his music roots through his film work. Swarm is bound to have hidden messages and meaningful moments just like Atlanta did. Similar to the FX series, Glover continues to make opportunities for black artists to showcase their talents on a big stage. Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris star alongside Fishback as her sister and boyfriend, respectively.
Idris and Glover have ties together before this series as both have major shows on the FX network. Idris stars in the hit show, Snowfall.
As I stated above, this series is influenced by Beyoncé. The Atlanta director is not afraid to make fun of today’s society. Throughout the four seasons of Atlanta, the “3005” rapper has created episodes surrounding topics such as blogging, social media, barbershops, and racism, and fashion. Glover has even developed storylines based on people like Tyler Perry, Drake, and Disney’s Goofy character. Now, it’s Beyoncé’s turn.
Beyonce’s fandom, the “BeyHive”, is a group everyone is familiar with. The “BeyHive” has to be the most powerful movement on the Internet. One wrong word about Beyonce and the hive will swarm. Next thing you know, you have thousands of bee emojis on your page.
As I mentioned above, Glover has the ability to make fun of topics that are a staple in not only the black community, but society as well. There’s no doubt that he’ll address the “BeyHive” in the most respectful, but awakening way.
Wow, Malia Obama has surely grown up right before our very eyes. Now, 24, the former President’s daughter is taking her talents to the big screen. She is one of the writers on the series as this is her first writing opportunity since graduating from Harvard in 2021. Co-Creator of Swarm, Janine Nabers, told People that Malia is professional and her age really is a plus factor.
“[The main characters of the show] are in their 20s and Malia is in her 20s, so it was really great having someone like her in the room. She’s a very professional person, she’s an incredible writer and artist.”
Though this is her first job writing, the 24-year-old has been around television before. She was an intern at the Weinstein Company and on Lena Dunham’s Girls. She also worked as a production assistant on Halle Berry’s CBS series, Extant.
Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael Jackson, will appear in the series. Also, Macaulay Culkin’s younger brother, Rory Culkin, will have a part as well. It’s a small world being that Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin were lifelong friends. The Culkins and the Jacksons still manage to be linked together after all these years.
Let us know if you plan on watching Swarm when it premiers on Prime Video in the comments.
This year, Chloe “Chlöe” Bailey has showcased her incredible artistry and adept ability to go solo. While attending Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music event, the actress and singer teased her upcoming projects, including her debut studio album In Pieces and her starring role in Swarm. The 24-year-old chatted with Extra at the event, where she presented Latto with the Powerhouse Award.
Dressed in a dazzling beaded dress by Giambattista Valli, Chlöe shared the honor she felt for attending an evening dedicated to women who work both in front of the camera and behind the scenes in music. When reflecting on how the industry is primarily male-dominated, she said, “women can kick ass just as hard, but a lot of the time we’re not given the platform or put on a pedestal like men are.”
Chlöe Teases “Swarm,” Tells Viewers To “Buckle Up”
In January, Chlöe teased her upcoming album with the single “Pray It Away. ” The track, which was accompanied by a music video release, carries ethereal and emotional qualities, yet still remains to give off euphoric goosebumps. Chlöe also recently teamed up with Chris Brown for “How Does It Feel,” which dropped last Friday (February 24). “I love that song,” she told the outlet, “it’s definitely like, you know when you wanted to be with someone so bad and it didn’t work out because they took you for granted and it’s like how does it feel? Now that you’ve lost me.” The “Have Mercy” artist mentions how both songs are “just a little taste of what’s to come” with In Pieces.
Chlöe is also set to star in Donald Glover’s new television series, Swarm, which will release this month. The show, which also stars Dominique Fishback and Damson Idris, is a psychological thriller that follows a fangirl taking a dark turn. “I think what everybody expects it to be about it’s totally not,” Chlöe mentioned. She also notes, “and it’s all shot on film, it’s so stunning and beautifully written and people definitely have to buckle up their seatbelts because I don’t think they expect what it’s going to be about.” For more on the latest news in hip-hop and pop culture, be sure to check out HNHH.
