Donald Glover says ‘This Is America’ wouldn’t exist without ‘weirdos in hip-hop’ like Outkast

Donald Glover told Outkast at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that there would be no Childish Gambino without them. He similarly shared with ABC Audio that the group’s existence helped make songs like “This Is America” possible.

“I don’t think that there’d be like ‘This is America’ or anything like that without them kind of allowing…weirdos in hip-hop, whether it’s like [Outkast], Missy Elliott or you know like Timbaland and Magoo,” he said. “These were people who were allowed to be, like, visually stunning.” 

He noted Outkast was just the first he was personally able to witness as they came from his hometown of Atlanta.

Donald inducted the rap duo, comprised of Big Boi and André 3000, into the Performer category of the Rock Hall Saturday night, where he spoke more about the influence they had on his career.

“Big Boi and André, I want to personally thank you. Around the time Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out, I wrote a letter from college to my brother, and I said, ‘I had a dream that we wrote a show together,’” Donald said of his FX show Atlanta with brother Stephen Glover. “Thank you for showing me that brothers may not always see eye to eye in their philosophies or styles, but they need each other in a world that would rather see them both fail together.”

Outkast then took the stage and thanked a slew of people for their success, following their speech with a performance featuring Big Boi and special guests including Doja Cat, Tyler, The Creator, Killer Mike and J.I.D.

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