Drake Blasts Childish Gambino's "This Is America" On Tour, Calls It "Overrated"

BYGabriel Bras Nevares10.9K Views
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Drake Childish Gambino This Is America Overrated
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Considering that Donald Glover confessed the track was originally a Drake diss, there's clearly some bias at play.

Drake's "It's All A Blur" tour with 21 S*vage just kicked off, and there's no shortage of things to talk about. However, perhaps the spiciest and most potentially consequential part of the whole ordeal was him dissing Childish Gambino's "This Is America" as part of his visuals. Moreover, it was fittingly during Drizzy's performance of the track "Headlines," where multiple headlines appear on a screen. "The Overrated And Over Awarded Hit Song ‘This Is America’ Was Originally A Drake Diss Record," the screen read at one point. Of course, it's entirely possible that this is all in good fun, but considering their history, it's not particularly likely, either.

What's more is that it's kind of wild to think of Childish Gambino's "This Is America," a politically charged statement of a song, starting off as a Drake diss. Maybe that's the point, as the 6 God isn't one to engage in a lot of social topics in his music (which isn't a bad thing, necessarily). Regardless of your interpretation of this shade, there's a bit of conflicting evidence here as to whether there's legitimate beef here. For example, photographers captured them at the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscars party, so maybe they're just having fun with the outlets that will go wild over this news.

Drake's Onstage Shade To "This Is America"

Furthermore, Donald Glover explained the origins of "This Is America" during a recent GQ interview. "The idea for the song started as a joke, to be completely honest," Childish Gambino revealed. "‘This is America’- that was all we had, was, like, that line. And it started as a Drake diss, to be honest [laughs], as like, a funny way of, like, doing it. But then I was like, 'This s**t sounds kind of hard, though,' you know? So I was like, ‘Let me play with it.’ So we just had that for a long time."

Meanwhile, the Canadian superstar actually appeared (albeit in animated and mute form) on Childish's music video for "Feels Like Summer." In addition, Glover used him as inspiration for the "Atlanta" episode "Champagne Papi," titled not-so-subtly. In it, the character Vanessa goes to a party hosted by him, and he even responded to the episode: "This s**t is surreal, I’m too high for this." Perhaps these two aren't such enemies after all and are just playing around- and if they are their oppositions, well, let's see how Glover reacts. For more news and the latest updates on Childish Gambino and Drake, come back to HNHH.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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