Just over a decade ago, Donald Glover could be found riding his skateboard around Washington Square Park on his way to class at Tisch School of the Arts. This Friday and Saturday, however, Glover made an appearance a few blocks uptown, performing for an audience of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden.

Glover, a 2006 graduate of NYU, has performed music under the stage name Childish Gambino since 2008, and in the past 10 years has risen to be one of the most prominent names in hip-hop and R&B. Glover has announced that this will be his last tour as Childish Gambino.

He recently garnered attention for his single “This is America,” a fiery and politically charged thumper of a track that, along with the accompanying viral music video, thrust Gambino into the spotlight. Gambino’s tour is appropriately dubbed the “This is America Tour,” which kicked off earlier this month in Glover’s hometown of Atlanta.

Opening for Gambino was the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, an Atlanta-based group consisting of brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi best known for it’s hit song “Black Beatles.” They performed some of their well-known tracks such as “No Type” and “Swang” while also mixing in the occasional relatively deep track to showcase a bit of their artistic range.

As performers, both members were exciting to watch and interacted well with the crowd, with Slim Jxmmi even venturing into the audience during some of their better-known songs. They were undeniably a fun time and it was a boon for Gambino to pull out an Atlanta-based act to set the tone for the rest of the show.

After a short break, the lights dimmed and eventually illuminated a hunched-over Gambino next to a blue beam perpendicular to the stage and extending all the way to the ceiling. The overall lighting of the show was one of the most impressive aspects of the entire set, and the opening was perhaps the best use of lighting in the show. The blue column, along with the building music, gave Gambino an almost holy appearance, an aesthetic he would accent by stating on multiple occasions that the show would be a “religious experience.”

Exploding out of the blue column came the first track in the setlist, “Algorhythm.” This unreleased track as well as “All Night” were emailed to show-goers about two weeks before the New York City performance, with Gambino stating the tracks were “for people attending the show only.”

The former standing out as one of the most sonically interesting songs Gambino has ever put out, with a relatively straightforward lyrical structure being sung over an ever-changing and ever-evolving funk beat with a fair dose of electric vibes thrown in. It is truly a unique track in Gambino’s discography, but with an infectious chorus and a simultaneously nuanced and dance-friendly beat, the track has the potential to be one of Glover’s best and most successful once it is released.

Gambino’s performances of both “Algorhythm” and “All Night,” an ethereal and low-key track that sounds very similar to the two tracks found in Gambino’s “Summer Pack” extended play, started off the show with a fresh and surprising atmosphere that kept the audience’s ears on their toes.

After playing one of the “Summer Pack” songs, “Summertime Magic,” Gambino surprised the audience by going back in time with two deeper cuts off of his second studio album, “Because the Internet,” with “I. The Worst Guys,” and “II. Worldstar.” Both songs are two of his heavier rap songs, so it was refreshing to see Glover still had his vocal dexterity after a general shift away from rapping on his last studio album, the phenomenal “Awaken, My Love.” Additionally, the live band with whom Gambino performed his set gave the two tracks a new sonic perspective, most notably in “I. The Worst Guys,” which ended with an emphatic solo from guitarist Ray Suen.

There are few gripes one can have with Gambino’s set. It was a bit disappointed to see him exclude “Me and Your Mama” and “Retro [Rough];” both songs that both would have played incredibly well live. But any negatives pale in comparison to the dynamic and powerful overall performance Gambino put on in what could perhaps be his last ever performance in New York City.

Email Alex Jacobson at [email protected].