Not many people would label 2016 as a great year, but Donald Glover is not many people. While his multi-hyphenate stock burnished underneath the surface, slowly accruing credibility, this past year everything exploded for Glover.
He delivered his critically-acclaimed show Atlanta, surreal, personal, and created, written, directed, and starring Glover. He also released Awaken, My Love!, a p-funk album influenced and celebrating a range of black artists like Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton, Prince, and Donny Hathaway.
People have noticed the new clarity and confidence found in Glover’s new vision. He won two Golden Globes for Atlanta, while also winning the internet over for shouting out Migos’ “Bad and Boujee.”
Glover recently sat down with Wired to discuss the past year or so, revealing how fatherhood changed him, and how Atlanta draws from the voices and TV shows of Bernie Mac and Dave Chappelle.
Those shows were so honest and so true. Bernie Mac had a sister who was a crack addict on the show. It wasn’t funny, but it was real.
It seems Chappelle has been paying attention. Chappelle infamously walked away from his eponymous show, leaving behind $50 million as he experienced a serious disconnect with the audience and the way they laughing about race. As Chappelle has dabbled reinserting himself into the mainstream of pop culture, he’s been observing how a newer generation is handling the environment he was once in.
“I can’t keep up with all the shit he’s doing, but it’s all damn good. That he can do it all blows me away,” Chappelle told Wired.
Both Glover and Chappelle acknowledged the different context of creating and writing a TV show is, including the conversations we can have regarding race.
“[M]y show was a sketch show, and Donald’s is more of a regular sitcom,” Chappelle said. “And then we’re in a different time. Race is more nuanced today, and that helps the message. It’s been 10 years.”
