Childish Gambino Accused of ‘Taking Advantage Of’ ‘Awaken, My Love!’ Cover’s Team

Donald Glover, known worldwide via his stage name Childish Gambino, has been accused of underpaying and lying to his album’s cover team.

The album here is Awaken, My Love!, which was released on December 2, 2016, under the label Glassnote Records. The album was a critical hit and received nominations for Album of the Year and Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Returning to the accusation, it was made by Giannina Antonette Oteto, aka Giannina Oteyo. She is a Kenyan fashion model featured on the album cover of Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! Oteto made the accusation via Facebook in a now-deleted Facebook post.

On Sunday, December 24, 2023, Oteto used her Facebook profile to share a post on the Facebook group named Black Girl Luxury. She uploaded two pictures: the first one was of her holding a vinyl pressing of Gambino’s album, with her face on the cover of it.

The second picture was the same, but her mother was standing alongside her this time. Accompanying the photos was a lengthy caption, where she first that her mother is her best friend and her number one cheerleader.

Giannina Antonette Oteto, Awaken My Love album cover model, holding a vinyl pressing of the album (Photo: Facebook)

She wrote, “Being able to hold an album that I’m on the cover of. And having my bestie mom next to me to celebrate! My number one cheerleader! This album has been so hard for me to celebrate for many reasons, and for years, I resented it even.”

“It put me through a lot, but finally being able to celebrate it means a lot!” Oteto added to the first paragraph of her caption. She later updated her caption for further clarification and accused Gambino of taking advantage of her and the album’s cover team and lying to them.

She continued, “Update: I resented it because myself, the makeup artist, and stylist (all black women) were taking advantage of and lied to. We were received low pay but were promised residuals but never received anything.”

Oteto claimed that the only person who received good pay and residuals was a “white woman” who had worked to create the headpiece. She then stated that even though the “white woman” – who wasn’t on set to work – deserved the residuals she received.

“After years of lies and silence, then finding out the statute of limitation complications…. it’s been an exhausting, emotional, and overall sad thing to deal with. So it took so much from me, especially the fact that we all worked on it with so much love,” she added.

Giannina Antonette Oteto made her allegations against Childish Gambino via Facebook (Photo: Facebook)

While concluding her caption, Oteto mentioned the cover team was proud to represent black artists. Furthermore, she claimed that Gambino and his team had ignored all of the communications from her lawyers.

Since making such allegations against Gambino in a now-deleted Facebook post, Oteto has received support from the netizens. Instagram users are mentioning Gambino in her posts and asking the singer to pay Oteto what she is owed.

For instance, one Instagram user mentioned Gambino’s Instagram handle and wrote, “I love your [Gambino’s] work, and I’ve been a huge supporter, but if her [Oteto’s] team of lawyers is being ignored by your team, this is where we part ways, my man. Answer her. Pay her.”

People have created multiple threads on Reddit to discuss it further. In many of these Reddit threads, one thing is common: Redditors asking if Oteto had signed a legally binding contract requiring the 40-year-old singer to pay her residuals, as it’s not common for album cover artists to receive residuals.

Besides, one Reddit user even commented, “I’m skeptical as well. Post the contract or file a claim in the courts…this publicly claim their lawyers won’t talk to them is exactly what I would do if I didn’t have a strong legal argument.”

As of this writing, neither Gambino nor his legal team or representatives have made a comment. There is also a chance of this allegation being handled outside the court. For now, netizens have to wait and see what happens.