Childish Gambino streams new track, "Centipede;" will depart 'Community' midseason
Childish Gambino has debuted a new song, “Centipede,” which is available to stream or download for free on the rapper's SoundCloud.
Gambino, the hip hop alias of actor and comedian Donald Glover, has been relatively quiet recently, having released his last proper studio album, Camp, in 2011, before dropping his most recent mixtape, Royalty, last summer.
The rapper's performance schedule has been similarly sparse so far this year, but is likely to pick back up in the near future, as Glover recently announced that he would only be appearing on the first five episodes of the upcoming season of Community, his most famous acting vehicle, where he plays the character of Troy Barnes, before departing the show. The actor cited his reason for leaving as a desire to focus more fully on his music career.
Listen to “Centipede” below:
Though Glover's departure from Community has been confirmed to be final, the future of the show itself is still in question. At a recent Comic-Con panel, creator and showrunner Dan Harmon, who was fired after season three before being brought back to helm the upcoming fifth season, expressed a desire to make it to season six (and fulfill the long-running “six seasons and a movie” inside joke… though little mention of a movie was made at Comic-Con). The show saw the departure of another major cast member, Chevy Chase, partway through season four.
Glover has portrayed Troy Barnes for four seasons on NBC's 'Community.'
Harmon called Glover's exit both “devastating” and “heart-wrenching,” before comparing the loss of Troy to the loss of a body part. Despite that, the showrunner described Donald as “one of the most intimidatingly talented people I have ever had the pleasure of writing words for,” and pledged “absolute, full support doing whatever he wants to do.”
Community will return to NBC in early 2014 for its fifth season. Stay posted to Glover's site, which will soon re-launch, for future Childish Gambino activity.
