Donald Glover’s Atlanta shows that purgatory.
His character “Earnest” or “Earn” for short, works a what folks in the A would call “a bullsh*t ass job” at the airport. He still “dates” his baby mama, who still “dates” other dudes. He has a trapper-trying-to-be-rapper cousin who has a video blowing up on the internet and now views as his way to hit a lick. Earn works, but he’s always broke. His baby mama don’t really rock with him like that. He thinks his drug-selling cousin can rap their way to riches. Earn is stuck. Purgatory.
The story he tells is one that is very common in the city. But it’s one that no one really talks about because it’s not glamourous like the reality shows that get filmed in Buckhead, and it’s not gutter like the reality rap videos that get shot off Bankhead. Visitors and show producers aren’t really excited by a story about regular Black people living in a [rumored] Black city actually doing Black sh*t.
“With Atlanta the trap you fall in is people go to the sensational sh*t,” Glover told me at the red carpet screening for the show at the Georgia Aquarium in late-August. “People pay to see that, that sh*t is worth money. I feel like what we did was try to find the ordinary extraordinary. There are famous people who live here, but there are people who work at the airport who are dirt poor, but see rich celebrities constantly in front of them constantly, as if life isn’t weird enough.”
That said, some people thought that it was “weird” that Glover was going to be the “guy” to make a television show about growing up and living in Atlanta. Geographically, he’s from Stone Mountain, a suburb that’s 20 minutes outside of the city. Musically, he doesn’t fall from any established family trees planted by Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin or L.A. Reid. And on some real sh*t, you’ll have a hard time finding an everyday MARTA-riding, American Deli-eating, Greenbriar Mall-shopping Atlantan that could tell you what channel Community came on.
When T.I. starred in ATL, people trusted it because they knew him and felt that he represented the city well. Up to that point T.I. started his career at Atlanta-based LaFace Records, wore throwback Falcons jerseys in his videos, screamed “BANKHEAD” on every other song and dared to clown Jermaine Dupri for simply having the New York-centric words “yo, yo, yo” on “Welcome To Atlanta.” People knew T.I. was from Atlanta and he reminded people he was from Atlanta.
Glover wasn’t made in Atlanta in the same way. He moved to Hollywood to get put on. Then when he started his rap career as Childish Gambino, nothing about his music said “Atlanta.” There were no DJ Toomp beats. Not A-town co-signs. Hell, he even took his music to Funkmaster Flex in NYC to get debuted instead of dropping it off with Greg Street. It wasn’t until Lloyd was featured on his Because The Internet album that any thread of “Atlanta” was visible in his music. Ten months later he dropped his STN MTN mixtape with DJ Drama that featured him rapping over Zaytoven and Mike Will Made It instrumentals previous used by Future and Young Scooter. But even then, name dropping Donald Glover anywhere outside of a coffeeshop or social media was likely to get you crickets in response.
“I never think about that stuff,” says Glover. “I feel like when you start thinking like that, you limit yourself. I try to stay unlimited. I know there are people who are always going to dislike my music, parts of me or all off me. But I try to let the product speak for itself. If an artist is really good, you have no choice but to enjoy their art. Make it undeniable.”
