Man I watched this for the first time with my 3 year old son, did not expect that headshot! I hope lil man is alright.
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Childish Gambino - This is America
- Thread starter Deleted member 1444
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Replace "paying attention" with "having high enough IQ."
Before and after the first gunshot
Showed the video to my girlfriend and she had the same look after the first shot. That opening is such a great bait and switch.
Really good video, I always wonder how many of these rappers ever got dirty though, pulled some stunts. I knew dudes who blew off Tupac cos he only sold like 1,000 a week in rocks.
So weird to see wax nostalgic on an old life.
So weird to see wax nostalgic on an old life.
Pretty amazing stuff. I'm not a very perceptive person so thank you to everyone pointing out the many things I missed.
He really pulls it off, it seems hes upping his shirtless game though.
Goddammit. The first time it really stood out to be was this performance (and kind of the Telegraph Ave vid) -
Now, i'm pretty used to it.
Nah, not at all, hes not out of shape and him not being too muscular really helps him pull it off.
Song grew on me because the video. I wouldn't have rocked with it if I had access to audio first, it merely sounds like a rap album interlude to me. Sorta like Jay-Z's "Beach is better" track on his Magna Carter album.
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This music video gets better with every viewing. So much thought that went into this, and so much being told in such a short amount of time.
I fucking loooove that video. Dude is a genius no doubt.
I fucking loooove that video. Dude is a genius no doubt.
Before and after the first gunshot
Watching the video and its astounding how great the dancing choreography is so distracting I've yet to see anyone realize the man commiting suicide in the background yet (Took me 3 watches to catch it)
What's funny is that I love the gospel part wayyyyy more than the trap. Its stuck in my head.
It's a cool music video and it really sticks in your head after watching it. I'm still meh on the song itself, but he's a talented kid and one of the few rappers I feel that really switches it up with his projects lately. Even if I'm not particularly fond of his music aside from a few tracks here & there. Might just have to cop a shirt off his website just to show love to the hustle.
Yeah, the bass is insane. Tickles my ears like nobody's business.
What? Dude is clearly in shape. He just doesn't have the shirtless movie star body, which wouldn't work as well for this music video. His breasts make it clear he has muscle definition, and you can tell when he stretches his body that he has ab definition. But again, it doesn't pop as much because he's not going for the movie star body.
Without the visual context, the song is just a parody of itself (a point that is lost without the video anyway), and has to use the medium of a music video as a crutch to get its message across.
Compare this to, say, Alright, which accomplishes pretty much the same effect as This Is America, but works regardless, and either medium is enhanced by the other rather than depending on each other to succeed.
Really? Not only that pose, but also his manic behavior with the dancing and strained, erratic facial expressions really read as a parallel to Jim Crow/minstrel shows to me.
The pose is also about as close as you can get while also shooting someone execution style at the same time. I think he (and whoever else was working with him on the video) wanted to reference those things without being super blunt about it so that people would have room to interpret it. I said earlier in the thread, if he had come out in blackface or something to make that point, the whole conversation would be caught up in that hamster wheel dialogue and give critics something to criticize and avoid the larger issues.
Obviously I could be wrong too, though.
I assumed it was the tide turning and the mob was coming for him in the end. Whether that's from the republican party or the alt right, or the left, online trolls, a historical allusion to the lynching of a black man for speaking up, or a mixture of all, I'm not really sure.
I was also wondering if it was people coming for him because he held up something that appeared to be a gun ( just his hand) earlier in the video, and that was what sent everybody running.We know what happens to black men who appear to be holding a gun.
I don't know, there are a lot of ways people could interpret the imagery.
EDIT: after writing that, I realize you probably meant the falling guy in the background, not Gambino running away from the mob at the end.
I don't see anything wrong with having a song rely on visuals to give it more context and elevate the material. I said earlier in the thread that if I had only heard the song without the video, I doubt it would have stuck with me much at all. But now, every time I hear that song, those visuals are going to be in my head.
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He's clearly just standing there when he enters the frame and just jumps.
The SNL performance of This is America is currently trending #3 with 1m views. Just in case it wasn't more obvious that the music video is being kept off that list because of guns
Not so sure, I think that algorithm takes into account the channel it's on.
VEVO gets millions of views regularly, SNL not so much.
It catches Viral Videos in this way.
Like you said, theres nothing inherently wrong, but the poster wanted a reason for people not going crazy for just the song, and you said it yourself: it's incomplete without the visuals. It probably works much better in album format, hopefully (if an album is coming out) it succeeds instead of leaving something to be desired, which Ill allude Kendrick once again and argue that HUMBLE. ended up missing the mark in a similar situation regarding a single/music video scenario.
Loved the music video, loved the song.
What a ridiculous comment.
I feel like I am being hit with obvious symbolism but I am just missing it. I should mention I'm not black so maybe (probably?) that's why.
As a song I could bump it for the beat and rhythm but it isn't saying anything to me.
As a song I could bump it for the beat and rhythm but it isn't saying anything to me.
Can't imagine being the type of person where this is your main takeaway from the video.
Holy shit. I'm really glad I came back to this thread and watch this.
God damn Donnie give it to em.
All I'm gonna contribute to this thread is those school kids were getting it in.
Did a great job of distracting me of all the fuckery going on around them.
Did a great job of distracting me of all the fuckery going on around them.
I don't usually like English rap because it's too fast and way too gangsta to my tastes. I can't relate as much as I'd with Brazilian rap for example. Gambino in the other hand is an absolute transcendent genius. Brilliant.
just hit 29 million, might be his best viewed video at this rate, it just passed Bonfire
180~ million to beat Redbone
180~ million to beat Redbone