Donald Glover has been compared to Kanye West a lot recently, especially in light of his “This Is America” unofficially turning him into mainstream America’s newest poster boy for accessible, conscious rap. Rather than shy away from the comparison, he’s leaned into it; at a Los Angeles Emmys “for your consideration” screening and panel for his hit show Atlanta on Friday, he drew yet another, somewhat unexpected comparison himself.
Indiewire writes that, in addressing the upcoming third season of the critical favorite, Glover compared it to Kanye’s third album, Graduation, saying: “I align the seasons I think, to me, like Kanye records. I feel like this is our Graduation. This is probably our most accessible but also the realest — an honest version of it — and I feel like the most enjoyable, like the third album.”
Of course, Kanye’s third album was when he truly began to depart from his established formula in earnest, delving into sounds outside of his usual, sped-up soul samples, creating his “stadium status” sound. Glover credits the similarity to a shared competitive creative drive: “We were all on iMessage together and kind of talking about it, and I think people were really hungry to like beat ourselves, which is great,” he said.
Atlanta was renewed for its third season this week. Season one is currently streaming on Hulu, while season two is available on FX Now with a cable subscription.
