Drake slated the track at the opening night of his and 21 Savage’s co-headline It’s All A Blur tour.
During the musician’s set at Chicago’s United Center on 5 July, Drake sent for Childish Gambino, specifically his 2018 track This Is America. When he played his 2011 release Headlines, an LED display behind the artist displayed a line that read “The overrated and over awarded hit song ‘This Is America’ was originally a Drake diss record”.
Earlier this year, Donald Glover – aka Childish Gambino – revealed in an interview that This Is America was originally intended as a Drake diss track. Speaking with GQ in April about the song, Glover said, “To be completely honest, ‘This is America’ — that was all we had was that line. It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this shit sounds kind of hard though. So I was like, let me play with it” and from there it evolved to “reflect the culture of 2018”.
Watch a clip of the moment from Drake’s set – captured by a concertgoer – below.
@raptalksk_ Drake called This Is America “overrated and overawarded” after Childish Gambino said it was originally a Drake diss. This was at the first show of his tour in Chicago #drake #donaldglover #rapbeef #hiphop #raptok ♬ original sound – raptalksk
During the same set, someone from the audience also threw a phone at Drake – the latest in a series of incidents involving fans throwing things at popstars during their concerts. Drake recently released his debut poetry collection and announced a forthcoming new album to go alongside.
Last year, Glover said that he’d been working on new music. “I’ve been rapping a lot,” he said. “Producing. It’s fun again. Doing features.” On the subject of musical collaborations, he added: “I did one that I don’t think is gonna come out. I think the artist, or the artist’s management, thinks the verse is too controversial.”
Back in 2019, Drake rebooted the hit series Top Boy, bringing it to Netflix. Revisit our Top Boy cover story here.
