In a new interview with Billboard, Childish Gambino discusses a variety of topics, including his TV show Atlanta, how it feels to be black in America, and the influences for his upcoming Awaken, My Love! album.

The 33-year-old rapper explains the feeling of his new album and says he drew from childhood memories of listening to his father's favorite music. “I remember listening to songs my dad would play - albums by the Isleys or Funkadelic - and not understanding the feeling I was feeling,” Gambino says. “I remember hearing a Funkadelic scream and being like, ‘Wow, that’s sexual and it’s scary.’ Not having a name for that, though; just having a feeling. That’s what made it great.”

In the piece, Gambino goes on to say he approached Awaken as “an exercise in just feeling and tone.” He also summarizes how some people felt in the 1970s and compares it to what's going on around the world today. “It felt like people were trying to get out of their minds, with all the things that were happening - and that are happening right now," Gambino says. "How do you start a global revolution, really? Is that possible with the systems we’ve set up? There’s something about that ’70s black music that felt like they were trying to start a revolution.”

Gambino had his first child in 2016, and while he's reluctant to talk about his kid, he did talk about what it's like to begin raising a child. He tells Billboard, “It’s something everybody grapples with: why we’re programmed the way we’re programmed. A child is information. You’re programming this thing ... At the end of the day, all you can really do is plant a seed that you’re not going to see grow into a tree.”

As aforementioned, 'Bino also discusses his hit TV show Atlanta. He tells Billboard the show is “kind of nightmare-y. It’s not even, ‘Oh, it’s scary,’ so much as the feeling in a nightmare where you’re like, ‘I know how to run fast, but I can’t. I know what’s going on, but I have no control.’"

In other Childish-related news, the Georgia native just dropped another single from Awaken, My Love! Check out "Redbone," which debuted on BBC Radio yesterday (Nov. 17).

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