Donald Glover, Tyler, The Creator & Black Creatives Building Their Own Worlds

The rise of the multidisciplinary black creative foreshadows a future where black people are encouraged to and, most importantly, supported while they depict the world through their eyes.

In recent years, we’ve seen black creatives expand their artistry into multiple realms encompassing music, fashion, film, movies, and more. Arguably, the main two leading examples of contemporary multidisciplinary black creatives who are creating their own worlds today are Donald Glover and Tyler, the Creator.

Though they’re not the only two doing this, the worlds that Glover and Tyler have created are just as necessary for themselves as they are blackness as a whole, with both of them offering refreshing representations of blackness and challenging archaic depictions of black people (particularly black men) that are still present throughout mainstream media, through multiple creative mediums.

Almost a year after its premiere critics and fans alike are still buzzing about Glover’s TV series Atlanta. The show, both commercially and critically-acclaimed, explores blackness under the premise of a young black man trying to make his cousin into a rap superstar. For Atlanta, Glover serves multiple roles: he’s executive producer, director, writer, and actor. Ultimately, the result is a representation of blackness that feels and looks real where black people are simply able to exist as their whole selves.