Childish Gambino has previewed some new songs while breaking the news of his father’s death at his final US concert.
On Monday night, Donald Glover took to the stage at The Forum in California to play what is ostensibly the final Childish Gambino show on US soil.
As you could expect, this was always going to be a rather moving experience for anyone in attendance, however none seemed more emotional than Gambino himself.
In footage that has been uploaded to Reddit, Glover can be seen taking a moment to introduce the 2016 song ‘Riot’ to the crowd, breaking the news of his father’s passing in the process.
“I lost my father a couple weeks ago,” Glover can be seen telling the crowd, “and I wanted to play him some of the new songs.”
“But he didn’t want to hear them, because he was like, ‘I know they’re going to be great.'”
“I’m not saying that to talk about music — I say that to talk about trust. That’s what love is. I hope you guys get to feel that kind of love.”
Check out footage from Childish Gambino’s Los Angeles show:
Childish Gambino has been performing some of “the new songs” he referred to in his recent shows, having shared two new tracks to fans who bought tickets to his recent US tour.
While it’s not quite clear when we’ll be hearing the new record, fans are looking forward to it with bittersweet excitement, especially after the rapper revealed it would be his last under the Childish Gambino name.
“There’s nothing worst than like a third sequel, like a third movie and we’re like, ‘again?’” Glover explained to The Huffington Post. “You know, I like it when something’s good and when it comes back there’s a reason to come back, there’s a reason to do that.”
“Like I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things and I always had a reason to be punk,” he continued. “Being punk just always felt really good to me and we always looked at ‘Atlanta’ as a punk show and I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore.”
“As much as ‘Redbone’ is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio.”
Whilst this may be sad news for many fans of Childish Gambino, it would not be surprising if Glover returned to music under a different name in the future. Outside of his music, there are several upcoming TV projects the multi-talented artist is involved in.
Check out Childish Gambino’s ‘Feels Like Summer’:
Of course, fans are also somewhat disappointed to know that Donald Glover will be wrapping up his touring commitments soon as well.
While footage recorded at Monday night’s show saw Glover referring to the gig as “the very last Childish Gambino show ever”, the rapper still has a handful of European dates slated for 2019.
As expected, Aussie fans were devastated to learn recently that his cancelled Australian tour would not be rescheduled, so they’re undoubtedly hoping for some miracle of scheduling to take place before Glover wraps it up for good.
At this stage though, it seems like we’ll have to wave goodbye to Childish Gambino from afar, never getting the chance to say farewell in person, and never getting another astonishing Like A Version performance either.
Check out Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’:
