The hardest part of putting together this Childish Gambino story was deciding which quotes to pick. During the interviews, Donald Glover was thoughtful and eloquent, and there were some inspirational gems that didn’t end up making it in the final story. Check out a few of my favorite quotes below, and read the full uncut interview here.
On the difference between being serious and funny:
That’s why I think a lot of people have a problem with me, because I don’t see the difference. People will say, ‘The tone doesn’t feel right on this.’ But it feels right to me. I’ve seen people die and then seen there be a joke about it. My favorite Vine is these people rolling up on a graveyard and being like, ‘Oh you dead! You dead!’ It’s the funniest shit ever. Because the irony in the thing is he’ll be dead some day too. That could be really sad if you want it to be.
On the album title:
I was in the studio with Beck, and he was saying that when he was coming up there were a lot of alt-rockers and they didn’t really talk to each other. Everyone kind of stayed on their own. But rappers would always come up and be like, ‘Hey man! I like your stuff!’ They were very open. And he was asking if it’s still like that. And I was like, ‘Well… and I hate beginning sentences like this… but because the Internet…’ And he was like, ‘You should name your album that.’ And it started as a joke, but then we started thinking about it and it just made sense.
On our generation’s relationship with the Internet:
You can see me grow up on the Internet. You can see my tastes change. All of that is out there. I didn’t know what I was doing when I was doing it. I don’t know what I’m doing now, but everything is being recorded, and we’re the first ones to have to deal with this kind of stuff. So we have to be aware of that, and be aware of the repercussions. Our generation is a very important generation because we can still remember shit before the Internet. We remember just enough. We’re the only ones who remember time before the Internet. Our kids won’t know that.
