Childish Gambino's "Awaken, My Love!" was very close to being released under a different name. Ibra Ake, who works as a creative director for Gambino and a writer on Atlanta, has revealed that the album was originally titled Operation Highjump. Ake shared a video of the original vinyl copies of the album, which featured the same image used in the final pressing of the album (first debuted in Atlanta season 1), but also large letters that spelled out the unused title. It seems that these rare copies, which feature a variety of different texts will be available for sale at London's Lovebox festival, which Gambino is headlining this weekend.
Gambino will be hitting the road with Rae Sremmurd this September before touring with Vince Staples the following month. He released two new songs as part of a mini-project Summer Pack this week. Earlier this year, Gambino earned his first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 with "This Is America." It is unclear if he is planning to release a new album before his forthcoming tours.
Ake previously spoke of "This Is America" in an interview with WNYC radio. "Our goal is to normalize blackness,” he said. “This is how we would like to dance, but we have to be aware of the danger and the politics of how we’re perceived and the implications of the history of how we were treated.”
View Ake's video above.