Fresh off a surprise appearance at Coachella, Childish Gambino —a.k.a. Donald Glover —has announced two new albums, which serve as his first new solo projects in four years following 2020’s 3.15.20. Last year, he dropped an EP featuring Ni’jah for Swarm, his horror series that aired on Prime Video.
It was a busy weekend for the actor-rapper. On Saturday, he was a surprise guest during Tyler, the Creator’s headlining set, where the two performed “Running Out of Time” from 2019’s Igor.
On Sunday, Gambino took to social media to share that new music was on the way via a livestream that broadcast at 2 a.m. ET on Monday morning. “GILGA Radio tonight @ 11 pm pst,” he teased on X, formerly known as Twitter. “live streamed on Instagram @donaldglover.” A fan asked, “Music??” to which Glover responded, “of course. It’s a rollout dummy.”
“We’re releasing Atavista, but after that, there’s the final Childish Gambino album — a soundtrack for the fans,” he revealed during the broadcast, via Uproxx. His Instagram Live included a teaser for the original soundtrack to Bando Stone & the New World, which he said will be the final Gambino album.
Gambino has been teasing a new album for several months, telling TMZ last December that an album is coming “soon.”
He had previously said he was retiring the Childish Gambino moniker, telling HuffPo during a promo event for Atlanta in 2017, “There’s nothing worse than like a third sequel, like a third movie, and we’re like, ‘again?’” he said. “You know, I like it when something’s good and when it comes back there’s a reason to come back, there’s a reason to do that.”
He added at the time: “Like I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things, and I always had a reason to be punk,” he continued. “Being punk just always felt really good to me, and we always looked at ‘Atlanta’ as a punk show, and I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore. As much as ‘Redbone’ is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio.”
