Donald Glover is known for his minimal press, which is probably why he chose to interview himself for his new Interview magazine cover story.
The interview is dizzying to get through when you try to wrap your head around the same person asking and answering questions. Format and editorial choices aside, one part that had readers perplexed was a section of the interview that addressed Black women and race.
“Are you afraid of Black women?” he asks himself.
“Why are you asking me that?”
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“I feel like your relationship to them has played a big part in your narrative.”
“I feel like you’re using Black women to question my Blackness.”
Many Twitter users called out the ridiculousness of the interview, pointing to that part in particular.
it was this part of the “childish gambino interviewing childish gambino” interview that made me stop to think… why? pic.twitter.com/paLFRihd6m
— 𝕮𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖙 𝕶𝖎𝖒 💥 (@TheCourtKim) April 7, 2022
I try to think of editorial from all angles— executive level, impact level, story level, etc— but I quite literally don’t understand the point of this https://t.co/DSsgUsGVnM
— Ivie Ani (@ivieani) April 7, 2022
For chaos reasons, now I need a Black woman to interview Donald Glover since he said he’s not afraid of us.
— Najma Sharif (@overdramatique) April 7, 2022
Glover attempts to continue the discussion on race but quickly shuts himself down: “Can I say something? I hate talking about race more than five minutes unless it’s with other Black people and/or we’re laughing.”
Elsewhere in the piece, Glover touched on social media, saying that he only thinks “life is real unless some things are just for you,” adding that “everyone I meet who’s active on the internet looks tired as f— in real life.”
Later on, he shared that he thought that Because the Internet, his sophomore album as Childish Gambino, was “the rap OK Computer. It’s prescient in tone and subject matter and extremely influential. And I know no one’s gonna give me that until I’m dead. But it’s true.”
As for new music, Glover told himself that he’s been “rapping a lot. Producing.” and “doing features.” He declined to talk about any of these projects, however, and said that one verse in particular probably will not come out because the artist’s management thinks it’s too controversial.
Read Glover’s full self-interview in Interview magazine.