Childish Gambino talks: Leaving Community, Fears and Hopes for the Future and More!

Actor,

comedian,

writer,

and rapper.

My next guest does it all.

Please welcome

Childish Gambino.

[Live music]

I want to start,

[laughter]

okay, we'll let it sink in.

[Laughter]

A lot of Community fans here.

[Cheering]

I want to start there because

whenever you part way with a project

there's always misunderstandings.

Yeah.

And you wanna talk about why you left
and why you're not there.

I'm, nah.

I just, uh,

I just wanted to do something else,
that was it.

I don't think there's really
much more to it.

I wish I could say, like,

something other than that.

But I just wanted to do other stuff,
other... other stuff.

Yeah, and I guess on the internet
there were people wondering whether

you left it for rapping, you talked about
how ridiculous that is.

Yeah, well, that's the internet.

You could say anything on there

like, you could literally put in anything
about me and you will find proof

of it if you want, I guess.

But, like, you really can.

But the... everybody thinks I'm
Danny Glover's son

I'm not.

[Laughter]

But I mean, like, that's fair.

But I... I think... yeah,
I just wanted to do,

it wasn't rapping.

Because I don't consider myself a rapper.

I don't think Im a rapper.

I'm... I can rap, but I don't think I'm
a rapper.

I wanna do a bunch of stuff.

So yeah, I think a lot of people thought
I was just leaving to like,

be a rapper, but I think that's kinda dumb

Yes.

It's dumb! Because like, who wants to...
rappers don't wanna be rappers.

[Laughter]

They don't.

No, it's true.

Like, I've never, like every rapper I talk
to is like

"I wanna do this, I wanna do that",

they're usually artists who want to do
a bunch of stuff.

You know, I don't think any rapper
wants to be just a rapper.

And you are an artist,
you do a lot of things.

What do you put in the occupation box
when you file income taxes?

Oh, I usually just put like N/A,
like not applicable.

It's just like, I don't know what you
want me to say here,

but whatever it is you'll figure it out.

Yeah.

Like I usually try to, yeah.

We were kinda discussing social media.

Your Instagrams get a lot of people's
attention.

Especially when you shot photos of the
hotel paper.

Yeah, yeah.

I did that...

I didn't think that was gonna be a big
deal at all.

Like, I just was feeling some type of way

and uh, I wrote it down.

I mean, there were things like:

"I hate caring what people think."

I thought that was interesting.

Yeah, I mean I care about what people
think.

Like, people are always talking about

you know, you shouldn't care about
what people-

but you should.

Like, you really should.

Like, if I sneeze in your face,
I shouldn't be like:

"Ah, it's not me!"

[Laughter]

You should really care about...
it's always important to care what

other people think, or how...
cause that's what connects us.

I mean, I wanna do the best thing I can,

but sometimes it stops like...

you know, I'm insecure, I feel weird about
a bunch of stuff.

I'm awkward about stuff.

But I just, you know, I wish I didn't feel
that way so much that it'd stop me from

doing what I really love doing.

Because everybody's afraid,

you know, everybody's so afraid now
of offending and being misunderstood

and that's gonna happen

[Cheering]

so...

One of the most interesting things about
you as an entertainer is

first of all, you're also a stand-up.

I don't know anyone who raps and does
standup and...

I mean, you do a lot of things.

Pat Williams kind of does it.

Yeah yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, he kinda does it.

Now, this is interesting.

One of those things that was on Instagram
was,

"I'm scared I'll be Tyrese".

[Laughter]

It was funny cause, like,

I've had people come up to me and
be like,

are you scared you'll wake up and
one day you'll just be like,

like a monster movie.

But what I meant was, I'm surprised he
hasn't, like, said anything to me yet.

I really feel like one day I'll wake up
and just like a transformer will just

come through my room window and
just beat me up.

But what I meant was,

I just don't wanna be OK with right
where I'm at.

I never wanna settle.

I never wanna be like, just happy with
where I'm at.

I always wanna be going for better.

[Cheering]

I just wanna always get better at stuff,
that's all I meant.

I read a quote and I wanna make sure
you're quoted correctly.

You said you never wanna work for anyone.

Yeah, I don't want a boss.

I don't think we need that.

[Cheering]

I mean, we live in a time now where
it's like easier now than ever

to do anything, like I don't understand...

Like, people come up to me like,

how do I start making a movie?
Or how do I-

I'm just like, you got a phone.

Like, if I had a phone when I was like 7,

Yeah.

I would have made every movie I ever
thought-

I just would be doing it all the time.

I always try and get kids to learn how
to code, and like,

I feel like coding is gonna be what
keyboarding was when I was a a kid,

when people were like,

'You're not gonna need that,"

now it's everything.

Like, coding's gonna be like that,
3D printing, 4D printing,

we need to learn that like,
how important we are.

Cause like, we don't really feel important

we don't feel like we can do those
things, like people are always

asking me for permission, like,

"Can I be a standup? Do you think-"

I'm just like, if you- yeah!

Who's stopping you?

Nobody's stopping anyone anymore,
but we're afraid to move on.

That's why there's so much, like,

nostalgia on the internet.

Everything is always like,

"Remember Ninja Turtles?"

Like...

[Laughter]

because we don't wanna look forward
because that's scary.

Stuff is really scary, just like
3D printed guns and stuff,

it's scary.

But we gotta move on,
it doesn't make sense to stay here,

you know?

I really feel like we gotta be better.