Childish Gambino, also professionally known by his real name, Donald Glover, has been accused of not paying the woman featured on his Awaken, My Love! album cover. The woman depicted in the project, Giannina Antonette Oteto, updated supporters on the ongoing fight to receive her overdue payments for the work.
According to HotNewHipHop, Oteto detailed the news in a now-deleted post on her Facebook this December. Within the substantial update, Oteto informed her followers, in addition to a picture of her holding the acclaimed work solely featuring her face, that neither she nor her team have received the residuals they were promised.
“Being able to hold an album that I’m on the cover of,” explained the model of Kenyan descent.
“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 continued, explaining how her makeup artist, stylist, and herself were withheld from further pay, with their legal teams being ignored by Gambino and his management team.
“I resented it because myself, the makeup artist, and stylist (all Black women) were all [taken] advantage of and lied to. We received low pay. [They] promised residuals. But [we] never received anything,” expressed Oteto.
“The only person who received residuals was a white woman who created the headpiece even though she was not on set to work on this (but she also deserves it). After years of lies and silence then finding out 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 since we all worked on it with so much love and pride in representing Black artists. All of my lawyers’ communications have been ignored by [Childish Gambino] and his team. #bittersweet.”Despite the ongoing legal dispute, Oteto is still thriving in her professional career. Most recently, the fashion model took part in Dapper Dan’s collaboration with Gap for “DAP GAP,” as the new collection celebrates the designer’s Harlem roots and celebration of its diverse community.
As for Glover, he has yet to respond publicly to the allegations.
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