Breaking down rapper’s ‘This is America’ track

Donald Glover in Los Angeles, California, on May 10, 2018. FRAZER HARRISON | GETTY IMAGES | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The music video left viewers with a lot to unpack as Glover put on a one-man show full of allusions to recent news items.
  • It points to the ways entertainment can distract and desensitise, as well as the ways these artistes have discussed gun violence in their own music.

American actor and singer Donald Glover, who goes by his alter-ego Childish Gambino as a rapper, has caught the world’s attention with his new single “This Is America”.

Glover released the track online, alongside its official music video, which addresses the realities of America head-on. The music video left viewers with a lot to unpack as Glover put on a one-man show full of allusions to recent news items.

FIRESTORM

It has created a firestorm with its depictions of gun violence, looming apocalypse and dancing black people. The waves caused by the visceral, shocking clip were immediate, making the song one of the year’s most important cultural moments already.

It points to the ways entertainment can distract and desensitise, as well as the ways these artistes have discussed gun violence in their own music. Perhaps Kenyans can borrow a leaf from it. Here are a few hidden meanings from the song:

The man strumming the guitar - At the beginning of the video, a man who looks like Trayvon Martin’s father plays the guitar and it’s a moment that gives a nod to 17-year-old Martin, who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in 2012.

The man playing a guitar being shot - The seated man returns to the shot with a hood covering his head as Glover shoots him.

The red cloth - This piece of fabric - brought out by a well-dressed man - is used to carefully and reverentially cover the gun Glover used to shoot the guitar-playing man. It alludes to the fact that guns seem to be prized above people to many Americans.

As the dead man’s body is dragged off-screen, Glover continues to smile and dance as if nothing is wrong: as if a black body isn’t worth as much as the gun that was used for murder.

The murder of the choir - Glover once again addresses gun violence by shooting an assault rifle at a harmless church choir. It’s likely a reference to the 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The kids dancing - A group of kids who dance around Glover represent how the world consumes social media and entertainment as the world burns around them. It’s unclear whether or not it’s escapism or a coping mechanism, but it’s the way life is.

The kids are seemingly clad in uniforms that South African students wear and are dancing to Blocboy JB’s shoot dance to the gwara-gwara - a South African dance. The dancing also seems to be a sense of pride and protection from the chaos of the world.

Hooded figure on a horse - A hooded figure riding a white horse gallops across the screen so quickly you might miss it, but it is likely a reference to the ‘Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ in the Bible.

In other words, it refers to the end of the world. According to the Bible, the first horse was white, which mimics the imagery found in “This Is America.”