Childish Gambino

In what was supposed to be an intimate one-off performance in Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel, actor-turned-rapper Childish Gambino was apparently booed off stage last night. After turning up with a large entourage, it is said that Gambino spent the first 40 minutes of the show idling behind turntables as his friends, and even fans performed on stage.

Performing what appeared to be his only headline show as part of his Australian visit for Listen Out festival, Gambino was reportedly shocked at the negative reaction from fans. Just hours before the Newcastle show, Gambino cancelled what was supposed to be a second sideshow, in Canberra, citing that “his busy touring schedule taking a toll”. Perhaps the two are related?

Although as stated by one commenter on the Cambridge Hotel’s Facebook page:

“This was meant to be a DJ set, blame the hotel for misguiding most fans.”

The performance has left many fans enraged, and we’ll have to follow the story more today to find out if this is a gaffe on the part of the hotel, or promoters, and whether they misrepresented what the show was supposed to be, or rather if the touring schedule has taken too much of a toll on Gambino and is to blame for the underwhelming performance.

It’s disappointing to see the Listen Out brand disappoint fans twice this week alone with sound issues marring Melbourne’s performances. Especially for a festival that sits at the high end of attracting touring hip hop artists.

But one thing is for sure, fans spend a lot of money on seeing their favourite artists, and especially for teenage music fans who get very little opportunity to see the musicians they love, and they have every right to be angry about receiving a performance that was less-than-advertised. While no statement has been released by the tour agent or promoters, it does seem that now there is a growing selection of people who actually enjoyed the show and are dismissing the previous reports of an entire audience filled with angry fans, but rather paints a group of the fans as rude and aggressive.

It’s hard to know who to believe, but weirdly, both sides of the argument have a point.

Look at the difference in how the shows were advertised for Sydney and Newcastle.

Clearly, the Newcastle poster would not make it seem as if it were to be a Royalty DJ set featuring Childish Gambino. Even now the anger is starting to be directed towards the tour promotors rather than the artist. And for those expecting a DJ set, they probably had a grand old time.

The Cambridge Hotel though maintains that the show was intended to be a Childish Gambino headlining performance and has stated that:

“We’re very disappointed,… Unfortunately we can’t control the artist, and on the night we said something but unfortunately nothing changed.”

This back and forth is sure to continue through the day, but here’s hoping some fans enjoyed the show and for what it’s worth, it does look like some were for 15 seconds or so here:

//

Actor turned rapper Donald Glover A.K.A Childish Gambino is a busy man. Juggling both acting roles, putting out new music, and touring internationally. But if any of it is weighing him down, you wouldn’t tell by his recent interview with Conan O’Brien on his late night show ‘Conan’. Except for the hockey-esque playoff beard, Gambino seems completely at ease with his double life as an actor starring in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, and musical performer set to headline Listen Out festival next week! There doesn’t appear to be a Bruce Willis/ Bruno situation developing just yet for the Atlanta born performer. Yet.

Whatever you think of Gambino’s music, you have to admit that as far as switching disciplines, Glover has been about as successful as you could imagine. A founding member of comedy troupe Derrick Comedy, Glover got his start writing for 30 Rock, before moving on to the role of the beloved Troy in NBC’s Community. All the while however, alter-ego Gambino was working on his music, preparing to make a splash on the hip hop world.

Gambino ruminates during the interview, discussing the horror of his mother that he would consider leaving a prosperous writing job to pursue a career in music, he notes “It was a bad decision, but I didn’t know it—so it worked out great!” Clearly though, the creative talents of Glover are insuppressible, having achieved great success in writing/stand-up/acting/music he is the ever-rare quadruple threat.

When pressed on the differences between stand-up and performing in concert, Glover quips, “It’s really bad when people know all the words to your jokes,” and continues to note that he’d once had a bar of soap thrown at him on stage at a Gambino show, and how he’d much prefer to deal with that at a music show than during a comedy performance. Charming as always, Glover once again displayed his appealing nervousness that endears him to people, and works so well with his clever lyrics and urgent cadence.

Donald Glover is certainly a man of many talents. First emerging as the hilarious Troy Barnes on the TV show Community, then a killer musician via Childish Gambino, he may already be a hero to many fans out there. But Glover is now able to solidify the position, as it has emerged he will voice the character of the web slinging superhero Spiderman in Disney’s new animated series “Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors.”

Glover will voice the character of newly created Miles Morales, a half-black, half-Hispanic Spiderman who exists in a different dimension to the original Peter Parker. The two meet as Peter Parker jumps dimensions to thwart the Green Goblin, and is introduced to a young Miles who is adjusting to his new role as Spiderman.

See an excerpt below:

Hip hop and comic books have a dense, fruitful relationship, and Glover has long had a history with Spiderman. When the new live action reboot was announced, a Twitter campaign erupted for Glover to play the new Spiderman, sparked by Glover wearing Spiderman pyjamas on the TV show Community. Although as we know, Andrew Garfield was ultimately decided to star in the reboot, the new comic Spiderman series was already being planned. The campaign inspired Marvel to create the new black Spiderman based on Glover, who has used his stand-up routines to share his passion for the friendly neighbourhood hero.

Glover has admitted it is a massive moment for him, as he too was a huge Spiderman fan from way back.

“I never liked Superman that much, because I was like, ‘Yo, this dude can’t die. It’s too easy.’ Batman is pretty fly. He’s a close second, just because he doesn’t really have powers. He’s just a justice-driven vigilante. Spider-Man is the best because you just don’t know who he is, and he’s funny and he’s poor. I understand Spider-Man a lot on that level. He’s just trying to make it.”

He has even said that at his Childish Gambino concerts, fans of the new Spiderman have requested autographs on the Miles Morales comics.

However, he still holds out hope that one day he can play a live-action version of the role.

So do we Donald, so do we.

Quadruple threat Childish Gambino, a.k.a Donald Glover, has unveiled a new tune at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival in Tennessee.

Surrounded by flashing screens and lights, the shirtless rapper, writer, comedian and actor performed the six-minute track, which is full of groovy, mellow beats and riffs and a bit of crooning instead of rapping.

Could this track be part of the forthcoming new album? A series of tweets alluding to the possibility of five already recorded tracks were quickly deleted and Glover has also hinted his Childish Gambino alter-ego project might be coming to an end.

“I always want to do music, like I love music. I’m already putting out projects quietly everywhere and I want to produce,” he said while promoting his latest film, The Lazarus Effect. “I guess Childish Gambino is like a period in my art time, and I want to have periods in my life, so I feel like Childish Gambino is a period that should come to a close. I like endings.”

It would be the first album since his 2013 EP Because The Internet. Glover also released a new Childish Gambino mixtape called STN MTN in October 2014, which he called “a nice in-between for the next album”.

Watch the fan shot footage of the rapper performing his new track below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQTs73I42wA&w=560&h=315]

Gambino will also be headlining Listen Out festival later this year, alongside Joey Bada$$, Ryan Hemsworth and more. Details here.