It’s hard to say if we’ve ever seen anything like Donald Glover before.
A 34-year-old black man, Glover is the singing, dancing, rapping, directing, producing, acting, joke telling, Star Wars appearing, thought provoking, Grammy winning, A-Town repping, attention grabbing, do-it-all dynamo that has captivated the entire country. He’s basically Jamie Foxx on roids, and his visual for latest single entitled “This Is America” had all of social media on notice this past weekend.
While hosting Saturday Night Live (and clowning SNL for turning down his audition, twice), Glover, stage name Childish Gambino if you’re hella late to the party, debuted the aggressive track in his second performance.
However, the video for “This Is America” (which also dropped on Saturday) was a far more gripping representation of black life in this nation. The graphic gun violence in the video will cause any ’90s hip-hop head to reminisce about about the days of rap yesteryear, even if it feels way too disturbing to be emanating from the guy from Community.
And that’s kind of the point. Hardcore fans of Glover are aware of his almost too real hood stories on his hit FX series Atlanta. But those who may only know him from his NBC days or his standup comedy might not be as familiar with his passion highlighting issues that plague Black America.
Gambino is seen singing and dancing, almost gleefully at times, throughout the video, while utter chaos breaks out in the background—this underscoring the idea that America gladly accepting his song & dance routine while willfully ignoring the plight of his people, much of which is either caused or exacerbated by gun violence.
While Gambino the killer works alone, Gambino the performer spends much of the video dancing with kids, thus affixing the influence of entertainment culture to our youth, even when in the presence of destructive forces. The lyrics, “We just want to party, party just for you/We just want the money, money just for you,” and “Get your money, black man” comes with an almost sarcastic tone in light of these visuals.
Bino concludes the video by fleeing the scene while being chased by what appears to be an angry mob, giving the viewer a feel for what Dave Chappelle probably felt like in 2005.
This is only tip of the iceberg. As is usual with Glover, there’s more beneath the surface.
What do you think of “This Is America”? Drop your thoughts in the comment section below.