The one artist whose music Childish Gambino has had sex to: “It was perfect”
Childish Gambino doesn’t listen to music when he’s having sex. For him, it’s a distraction when he wants to give his significant other time and attention. However, there’s been one instance when a song played in the background, which turned out surprisingly well.
During an interview in 2012, the musician, also known as Donald Glover, revealed that James Blake set the tone for a night of pleasure. However, he didn’t go as far as revealing which song of his soundtracked his strokes.
“I don’t really have sex to music because you stop paying attention to her,” he told GQ. “There’s no faster way to get a woman out of the mood to say she’s second priority. I don’t usually do it, but it did happen the other day – I was having sex to James Blake, and it was perfect.”
Funnily enough, Blake feels the same way. While sitting down with Lil Yachty for Complex, the London singer/producer admitted he also doesn’t play any music during sex. The Atlanta rapper told him, “I really can’t imagine you even having sex, and I really don’t want to imagine it.”
Yachty added, “I could see you having sex in utter silence,” with Blake joking that he requests complete silence to the point he can hear a pin drop. “You probably put on cricket VFX sounds and just go at it to the sound of like, frogs,” Yachty said.
On a serious note, Blake explained why he can’t play music in the bedroom. “You know what bothers me about playing music when you have sex is if you hear a certain lyric that makes you laugh,” he said. “For me, I can hear the lyrics too well. I’m tuned into the lyrics. I’d have to vet every single song on a playlist.”
Gambino married his longtime partner, Michelle White, in 2024. The couple began dating in 2015 and have three sons born in 2016, 2018, and 2020. During another interview with GQ in 2020, Gambino admitted that he’s struggled with his sexuality and was reluctant to put a label on it.
“Most of my college years were me being like, ‘I don’t know what I like,’” he said. “I had friends who asked, ‘Are you gay?’ And I’d be like, ‘I sort of feel like I am because I love this community.’ You know? But maybe I’m not? And I always was trying to figure out, ‘Am I weird for not wanting to label it?’
“Yet, also, I never felt completely safe in just one place. One time, I was really close with this guy – a white guy. I was like, ‘Oh, man, this guy’s my friend.’ And then, one day, we went to the mall, and some Black kids ragged on his shorts. He turned to me and said, ‘There are Black people, and then there are n*ggas.’”
Following the incident, Gambino conversed with his father, who gave him the support he needed. “My brain, my heart… It was really intense, so I go home, and I tell my dad,” he said. “To his credit, he sat there for a minute and just thought about it, and then he said, ‘What do you feel? That’s the most valuable thing right now.'”
He continued, “I think I said, ‘I think I understand what he meant. And that really hurts me.’ But I was in high school, so I didn’t really have the emotional tools to really be like, ‘Oh, I understand,’ because I had no experience. We just never talked again.”