Childish Gambino plagiarism accusations surfaced on social media as Donald Glover, the musician and actor behind the alter ego personality, appeared on the BET Awards show on Sunday, with some saying his "This Is America" borrows heavily from rapper Jase Harley’s 2016 song "American Pharaoh."
While BET Awards host Jamie Foxx joked with Glover on stage at the televised awards show, online music pundit Big Business started a Twitter firestorm with his charge of plagiarism, The Daily Beast reported.
The controversy had first started in a popular hip hop thread on Reddit where Gover was accused of plagiarizing New Jersey rapper Harley. Many others jumped in on social media.
The Daily Beast said Fam Rothstein, part of Glover's management team, on Monday posted a profanity-laced statement on Twitter that "This is America" was three years old and they could prove it.
Harley’s "American Pharoah" video has gone going viral with more than 640,000 views on YouTube and he has taken the high road, calling Glover "a talented artist either way," but admitting "a shout out would be cool." Many of the video's 1,600 comments have come over the past several days.
Glover’s song and accompanying video, describing the harsh lives of some African-Americans, became a media darling when it was released last month, making Childish Gambino a household name. The video was viewed more than 18 million times on YouTube within days of its release while being celebrated by CNN and the website Vox.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.