In a recent interview with GQ Magazine, Childish Gambino says his hit, âThis Is America,â was originally a Drake diss. Gambino decided to take the song more seriously as it developed. âI had that idea three years before,â Glover said of the 2018 record. âThe idea for the song started as a joke, to be completely honest. âThis is America,â that was all we had â that line. And it started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this sh_t sounds kind of hard, though.âGambino says the song and video came together after studying Michael Jacksonâs âThrillerâ video and Young Thug, who has a writing credit on the song, advised to make a âWe Are The Worldâ type of song for Hip-Hop.Â