Donald Glover On Why He’s Dropping Childish Gambino Stage Name: “It’s Not Fulfilling”

Donald Glover is about to release his last album as Childish Gambino and is explaining why he is no longer going to be using that stage name.

Ahead of the release of Bando Stone & the New World, Glover is opening up about why he is retiring Childish Gambino.

“It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done,’” he told The New York Times in an interview. “It’s not fulfilling. And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”

Glover has been simultaneously working in music and acting and before releasing 2008’s Sick Boi as Childish Gambino, he was referred to as “mc DJ.” The Community alum said that his decision to put the Childish Gambino moniker to rest was due to his many film and television projects, his family, and his production company, Gilga.

Back in 2015, the actor and musician said in an interview with Today that he would “always want to do music” and only saw Childish Gambino as “a period in my art time.”

“I want to have periods in my life, so it’s like I feel like Childish Gambino is a period that should come to a close. I like endings,” he added. “I look at my life like it’s something you should be able to paint. I think it is like performance art.”

Bando Stone & the New World is Glover’s fifth album set for release on July 19. Glover is also set to kick off a world tour on Sunday, August 11, at Paycom Center in Oklahoma. The tour will take the rapper across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He is set to wrap up the tour on February 11 at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.