Donald Glover Just Can’t Stop Interviewing Himself

Donald Glover chats with himself in a new Interview feature where the actor-rapper discusses Atlanta, his upcoming on-screen projects, and regrets from the early half of his music career.

However, this isn’t Glover’s first interview with himself: In 2011, back in the Community days, Glover sat down with fledgling rapper Childish Gambino for a confrontational one-on-one conversation between the alter egos for Rolling Stone. 

“Why do you rap like shit?” the actor asks the rapper. Gambino responds, “Mostly because my voice is annoying.”

“People say I sound like Kanye,” Gambino later tells Glover. “I don’t know where that comes from.” Elsewhere in the interview, Gambino praises Eminem’s abilities and quotes his own favorite lyric, which Glover claims he wrote.

In the Interview interview, Glover prods himself a little less viciously, with the chat revealing some news — like Pen15’s Maya Erskine has taken over for Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the Mr. & Mrs. Smith television series — as well as Glover’s thoughts on shows like Euphoria and Dave. Undiscussed: Childish Gambino, as the Glovers don’t share anything about any music the rapper might be working on since his surprise 3.15.20 LP two years ago.

“People think I’m pretentious. I can be a snob. But I think in entertainment or art it’s important to know the difference between things,” Glover tells Glover. “Like, Anthony Bourdain wasn’t pretentious, but he definitely knew the difference between a dry-aged wagyu and a smash burger. Neither is better or worse than the other. They’re just different experiences. And I wouldn’t want to have either every day. But I would never confuse the two. I expect the same of my audience.”