Update: EP will be live TOMORROW, beginning at 12 AM EST as part of Glover’s production company Wolf + Rothstein’s partnership with Stem, a distribution and payments service for artists.
Way back in 2011, Donald Glover was just an actor, mostly known for his roles in the indie comedy Mystery Team and as Troy on Dan Harmon’s NBC college sitcom Community. While he’d dabbled in music with the mixtapes I Am Just a Rapper, I Am Just A Rapper 2, and Culdesac, he hadn’t yet made the crossover into serious, full-time rapping.
He did that with the release of EP a five-song collection that declared that “music was my side chick, but now we moving in together.” Containing “Freaks And Geeks,” the single that introduced Gambino to the world at large as a punchline-spouting student of the craft, EP changed the trajectory of Glover’s career from “actor-who-sometimes-raps-in-his-spare-time” to “actor-rapper-serious-musician” with many more hyphenates to follow.
Unfortunately, until now, EP was not available for streaming. As Gambino’s manager, Wolf Taylor, told Billboard, “Artists should never be in the position where the industry hinders their creative output. Our goal is to give our artists the ability to release content when and where they want. Partnering with Stem has allowed us to maintain our major label resources while providing us with a platform to independently release our special projects.”
Now, Glover has come full circle, promising to retire the Childish Gambino moniker and returning to the screen for the second season of his runaway hit comedy Atlanta and as a young Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars movie. Along the way, he racked up an Album Of The Year Grammy nomination and lit up the show with an intense performance of “Terrified” from his latest musical experiment, Awaken, My Love. Check out EP below.
