Childish Gambino is one of my favorite humans. I find his talent limitless and his work ethic unmeasurable. Before the rapper Childish Gambino exploded onto the scene, he was just a timid and scrawny nerd from Stone Mountain, Georgia by the name of Donald Glover. Glover is a quadruple threat, having successful careers in writing, acting, comedy, and rapping. Recently, Donald Glover has been in the spotlight due to some behavioral oddities. His temperament has flipped completely. Starting from being quirky and foolish he became laid back and serious.

The pinnacle of his transformation was when he released a series of pictures on Instagram of letters he wrote stating his fears and insecurities.These letters caused a huge impact on the media, stirring up many rumors and controversies.

To give a better understanding of his behavior, a timeline of events leading up to the release of his Instagram posts may be helpful for clarity. Glover is a college-educated African American with a degree in dramatic writing from New York University. I started following his career when Glover started gaining credibility after his Youtube channel became widely recognized, giving him the opportunity to perform a couple of stand up specials on Comedy Central. Out of college he had the chance to write for one of the best comedies on television at the time, 30 Rock. It appeared that his career seemed to be booming right out of college. What could be better than writing for an award winning TV show and having your very own stand up special on Comedy Central right after you graduate? Apparently Glover was not satisfied and was driven to be more successful. After only two seasons, Glover decided to call it quits and pursue a new interest, acting. I watched as Donald Glover was selected to be one of the leading roles on a show that eventually became widely recognized as Community.

While Donald Glover was on Community he released an album that caught

the attention of many music fans called, Camp. As his popularity in acting increased, so did his popularity in the music industry. His schedule became unbearably busy as he had to work on his music on the set of Community because there just wasn’t enough hours in the day to work on both. This conflict eventually led him to ask the creator of Community, Dan Harmon, to write him out of the show. Harmon graciously accepted Glover’s request. This is when things started to change. While he was filming his last season, his personality changed. He started to act more serious and I noticed he began to dress differently. He let his hair grow out, didn’t shave, and wore clothes that made him almost appear homeless.

Then, unannounced, Glover posted seven consecutive pictures of letters he wrote on hotel notepad paper expressing his fears and insecurities. These letters consisted of dark messages that started to scare his fans. The power that these pictures had over the media put a spotlight directly over Gambino’s head.

The question that was on everyone’s mind was, why? What possessed him to express such personal feelings? Many of the articles written on this topic assumed one thing, depression. An article, published on The Root, talks about how many people thought Glover was depressed because of these posts. The author says, “Donald Glover, also known as rapper Childish Gambino, posted some emotional hand-written notes on Instagram last month, speculation that he was clinically depressed began,” (Akoto, 2013). After doing a little research, it did not take long for me to notice that almost all of the articles speculating depression used the same quote to back up their claim, “I’ve been sick this year. I’ve seen a bunch of people die this year. This is the first time i’ve felt helpless,” (Instagram Pictures). These articles were making bold assumptions based off of a single quote. I found it unsettling that the media was trying to diagnose Gambino with a mental illness by analyzing a few sentences.

Other articles that I came across also made assumptions based off what was said in the letters, however, the information that they used to back up their claim was not factual. I read an article that wrongly explained a quote without knowing background information on Glover. One article from Vlad TV responded to a quote found in the Instagram letters saying, “I’m scared I will never grow out of bro rape.” The author writes, “That statement could be interpreted in different ways, implying that he himself might’ve been raped in the past, or a brother of his or someone he calls a ‘brother.”‘

The author thinks Gambino’s aim is that he or someone he knows was raped. However, what he was actually referring to was a viral Youtube video he made early in his comedy career literally titled, “Bro Rape.” The author made the error of trying to analyze something without having the proper background knowledge of the topic. What I strongly believe Gambino was trying to say here was he is scared that no one will take him seriously in the comedy and film making industry and when people look at him they will just think of him as “that guy” from Youtube. This shows that analyzing what he said on the notes is not a good way to make claims about a persons mental health.

The media was basing their assumption of depression off of two major things, Gambino’s change in behavior and the Instagra m rant. Although the change in temperament does seem to point towards depression, I am not going to try to diagnose him with anything. I am not qualified to do so, but what I can do is analyze evidence of events leading up to these changes that can give a better understanding of his actions and explain why those events may have caused the media to put labels on Gambino.

When Gambino chose to part ways with the show, Community, people saw that decision as odd behavior. The media wanted to diagnose Glover with depression to explain his departure from Community, but any fan who follows him like me would know that he has a tendency to unpredictably leave one project for the next. He seemed to stay at a job for a short period of time, then leave and go on to something new. He only wrote for two season of 30 Rock when he decided to leave and pursue acting. He also only did two stand up specials until he declined a third because of lack of interest. Now, if you follow the pattern, I think he left Community because he lost interest in that too.

In a song called, “We Ain’t Them”, Gambino talks about how he is leaving Community in attempt to be more successful. In his lyrics, he mentions a conversion he had with his parents that said, “I sent a long text message to my mom and pop. I got the same speech when I left 30 Rock. My mom like ‘Why you wanna leave a good job?’ My dad like ‘Do your thing, boy, don’t stop.’” Gambino has always left good jobs, so I don’t think him leaving Community is that odd of behavior. Many people were speculating he was leaving Community to focus on rapping. I don’t think his sole reason for leaving Community was to rap, I think it was to be more successful than he already is. He even mentions in his Instagram post, “I didn’t leave Community to rap. I wanted to be on my own,” (@Childishness, Instagram, 2013). He also mentions ,“I’m scared I wont reach my potential,” (@Childishness, Instagram, 2013). I think he feels that being an actor has limitations and he won’t be able to express his creativity. Now he can make what he wants and be in control of his own success.

The only thing I know about the situation is that he wanted people to see what he had to say. There would be no other reason to post seven pictures in a row. If he would have only posted one picture, I don’t think it would have caused as much attention. It is much more common to post multiple tweets in a row than to post multiple picture on Instagram in a row, so the fact that he broke social norms made the event stand out much more. This proves that Gambino was trying to make a statement and wanted it to be seen by many people to stir up some type of conversation.

Childish Gambino’s latest album is ironically called, Because the Internet . The reason I say it is ironic is because the reason his Instagram posts caused such an impact on the media was “because the internet.” Everything spread throughout the internet causing many conversations and labels. He used the internet to toy with the media. He knew people would see the posts because the internet spreads stories like wild fire and everyone would end up seeing it and writing about it, just like I am right now.

Childish Gambino’s Instagram rant showed that the media has control over how everyone thinks and also how the internet can be used to control the media. The media placed labels of depression on Gambino that directed conversation of writers, interviewers, and fans. Gambino knew that the media was going to jump all over these posts which leads me to believe that he intended for these reactions to occur. He controlled the media by posting those pictures on the internet knowing how they were going to react, but the media placed labels on Gambino which controlled the impact it had on the fans. Gambino said he was just trying to express his feelings, but the media made it appear that he was depressed causing the fans and viewers to lose sight of what was the truth and what the media made them believe.

By: Ryan Langdon

Syracuse University

Twitter: @RyanLangdon_9