Songfacts®:

• "Lithonia" is the lead single from Bando Stone & The New World, the farewell album for Childish Gambino, aka the rapping alter ego of actor Donald Glover. The album doubles as the soundtrack to a film of the same name.
  
  Glover takes on the role of Cody LaRae, a disillusioned singer whose stage name is Bando Stone. After isolating on an island, LaRae is thrust into a post-apocalyptic world where he forges an alliance with a mother and son, and battles prehistoric creatures while desperately seeking an escape from this mysterious new world.
  
  This soulful hard-rock power ballad introduces us to Cody LaRae.
• During the song, Cody LaRae, a character speculated to represent Glover himself, feels isolated and disenchanted with his life in the entertainment industry. The chorus echoes his feelings of alienation, rejection and obscurity.
• Glover imbues the song with raw emotion by drawing on personal experiences. He shouts out Lithonia, a small town in Georgia that borders Stone Mountain, where he was raised. He struggles knowing that his city will never accept his artistry.
• The moniker "Bando Stone" likely references Stone Mountain, while "Lithonia," meaning "city of stone" in Greek, adds a layer of symbolic weight to the track.
• Glover produced the track with longtime collaborator Ludwig Göransson, Swedish pop hitmaker Max Martin, and Michael Uzowuru (Frank Ocean, Rosalia), all of whom share writing credit with Gambino's engineer, Riley Mackin.
• Directed by Jack Begert, the "Lithonia" music video is a concise, two-minute descent into the surreal. The clip opens with an intimate band performance before morphing into a disturbing spectacle. Besides Glover, the visual stars Ludwig Göransson, musician and actor Alex Wolff (Hereditary, Pig), Suzanna Son (The Idol, Fear Street: Prom Queen), musician Lynette Williams and Lorde's musical director, Ray Suen.