Anyone who’s ever seen Donald Glover perform can tell he doesn’t tend to hold back. It’s a quality that’s brought him heaps of success as a comedian, actor, and rapper, but his ability to tell it as it is also comes into play when discussing his audience. In a recent interview, the star of Atlanta revealed that he gets offended when fans draw comparisons between his show and Dave, a 2020 series starring Dave Burd as “Lil Dicky”, an up-and-coming rapper from suburban Philadelphia.
Donald Glover Doesn’t Think “Atlanta” and “Dave” Have A Lot in Common
Donald Glover has worn many hats over the years and has a finger in many pots. He’s been a writer, a comedian, a rapper, and an actor, starring in twelve feature films and sixteen TV series to date. One of his most well-known roles is as ex-jock Troy Barnes in the NBC sitcom Community, which ran between 2009 and 2014.
One of Glover’s most recent projects was Atlanta. In this FX series, he starred as Earnest “Earn” Marks, a college dropout-turned-music manager trying to redeem himself to his family and ex-girlfriend while navigating the “otherworldly” world of the Atlanta hip-hop scene. Aside from taking the lead role, Glover also played two minor characters, wrote, and served as an executive producer for the show, which means he has a front-row seat to audiences who tend to compare it to Dave, a 2020 FXX series. Dave stars rapper Dave “Lil Dicky” Burd as a fictionalized version of himself, a mildly neurotic man from Philadelphia who’s convinced he’s destined to become the greatest rapper of all time.
With fairness to fans, it’s not hard to draw comparisons between Glover’s Atlanta and Burd’s Dave. Both are surreal TV shows with star rappers in the lead role alongside a stacked cast of famous guest stars. Both shows also focus heavily on the music industry, just as you’d expect. Still, Donald Glover called the comparisons insulting when asked about the similarities between his show and Dave because he “[doesn’t] think they have a lot in common”, according to Cinemablend.
“Yeah, I don’t remember any critics [making the comparisons]. I think it was just people, but I definitely was insulted. Not because I think that Dave is bad, [because] I actually really think Dave is a good show. I just don’t think they have a lot in common.”
Donald Glover
In line with Glover’s views, fans who agree with him have pointed out that Atlanta uses the city’s hip-hop scene as a backdrop for various Black issues and culture. This is hardly the first time Glover’s taken shots at Dave, too, since he also took to social media in October 2021, calling out his fans for saying Dave was “on par” with his show, “like y’all forgot what we did.” Despite his callouts, Donald Glover has also maintained that he holds nothing but respect for Dave Burd and the stars and crew of Dave, which might explain why those Tweets have since been deleted.
Donald Glover’s Atlanta and Dave Burd’s Dave are available to stream on Hulu.
