Donald Glover has confirmed there is new Childish Gambino music on the horizon, according to TMZ.
Glover told the outlet he had been working hard in the studio and the album would be coming “soon”.
It has been almost four years since the last Childish Gambino release, 3.15.20, dropped in March 2020.
The news comes in the wake of allegations of mistreatment by some people who worked on his third studio album, Awaken, My Love!, which was released in 2016.
Giannina Antonette Oteto, the model who appeared on the cover of the album, alleged in a statement posted to Facebook that she, the stylist and the makeup artist who worked on the cover were “[taken] advantage of and lied to”, especially in the way of financial compensation.
“Being able to hold an album that I’m on the cover of,” Oteto wrote in the post, along with a photo of herself holding a vinyl copy of the album – both of which appear to have since been deleted. “And having my bestie mom next to me to celebrate! My number 1 cheerleader! This album has been so hard for me to celebrate for many reasons, and for years I resented it even. It put me through a lot but finally being able to celebrate it means a lot!”
Model Giannina Antonette Oteto from Childish Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” album cover says he took advantage of her:
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“myself, the makeup artist, and stylist (all black women) were [taken] advantage of and lied to. We received low pay but were promised residuals but never… pic.twitter.com/rIljdoy8RZ
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 27, 2023
Oteto’s post was updated to allege herself, the stylist and the makeup artist ” (all black women) were [taken] advantage of and lied to”.
“We received low pay. [They] promised residuals. But [we] never received anything,” she continued. “The only person who received residuals was a white woman who created the headpiece even though she was not on set to work on this (but she also deserves it). After years of lies and silence then finding out statute of limitation complications… it’s been an exhausting, emotional, and overall sad thing to deal with. So it took so much from me especially the fact that we all worked on it with so much love and being proud to represent black artists.”
Oteto claimed all of her lawyer’s attempts at communication with Glover and his team had thus far been ignored.