-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Childish Gambino - This is America
- Thread starter Deleted member 1444
- Start date
You mean like the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
He leads the kids out of town as revenge for the town refusing to pay him for ridding them of the rats. In some versions they are merely never seen again, in others they are explicitly drowned.
Wow! That artwork represents what Gambino is doing almost perfectly.You mean like the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
He leads the kids out of town as revenge for the town refusing to pay him for ridding them of the rats. In some versions they are merely never seen again, in others they are explicitly drowned.
When the kids are in a circle dancing around him, I definitely got these vibes:
welp, i didn't knew this artist... thank god i didn't just listened to this one... cause i freaking hate this new style of rap (mumble rap or something, poplarised by migo) that you can hear everywhere and it always sound the same!
Turn out he did this on purpose (an other person on era told me that) ? Listened to his other tracks and it's completely different and way better imo
Turn out he did this on purpose (an other person on era told me that) ? Listened to his other tracks and it's completely different and way better imo
Both the video and the song is being dissected and analysed all over the internet, if you look for it. He isn't saying you shouldn't try to analyse or discuss the meaning of it all, but the moment an author descends to give his or her definitive interpretation the discourse is lost and the work is diminished. If the discourse is allowed to exist between the fans the work is kept alive, with different interpretations still being allowed to carry weight. That's the most respectful stance a creator can have in regards to the fans, if you ask me.
Is this a no true Scotsman thing? So what if people haven't taken a black history class? You realize those probably are rare or non existant outside US right? A person has to to take a course or be an expert on black history and US history to have an opinion and comment? No one is taking credit for anything, if anything, it's making people think about the issue and even learn about it, as we've seen examples in this thread. The purpose of a message in art is to be thought provoking and raise awareness, not to be exclusive to a well educated "elite".
#1
ok I'm out of touch so I just finally saw this music video. But it has been dominating the internet, Reddit meme circles and pop culture for the days (lets be honest, internet memes are pop culture now).
https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY
It's a great song and even better music video.
I'm an out of the loop idiot who is totally unaware. I did know of Donald Glover and thought he was just a young Wayne Brady and had his child gsmbino thing as like a weird al of rappers.
I was completely wrong. because I did see this thing on YouTube tonight.... and yeah
I'm aware of the memes and "controversy" about it all over the internet now, which is all funny, sad and introspective.
But the most ridiculous thing about it is videos on YouTube trying to break it down.
Like "the hidden messages behind this is America"
https://youtu.be/9_LIP7qguYw
What the fuck?
What deep meaning is he trying to hide here through metaphors or some shit.
He is (no pun intended)shooting you in the face with the themes and messages he is trying to get across. It's incredibly artistic and just a damn good song.
And now every media outlet is trying to "break it down" with their own pop-up video monologues, like they cracked the code.
My favorite is time magazine, who at the end say it's an homage to the TRADITION of black people running away from slaves.
https://youtu.be/ESKmRiLjNpg
That's right, the TRADITION.
Oh man let's just run away from those white folks like good ole days.
Damn he really opened my eyes, I never would've realized this if not for this thoroughly researched breakdown. Thank you vox you are truly "woke" (that word is dead now)
What the fuck
ok I'm out of touch so I just finally saw this music video. But it has been dominating the internet, Reddit meme circles and pop culture for the days (lets be honest, internet memes are pop culture now).
https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY
It's a great song and even better music video.
I'm an out of the loop idiot who is totally unaware. I did know of Donald Glover and thought he was just a young Wayne Brady and had his child gsmbino thing as like a weird al of rappers.
I was completely wrong. because I did see this thing on YouTube tonight.... and yeah
I'm aware of the memes and "controversy" about it all over the internet now, which is all funny, sad and introspective.
But the most ridiculous thing about it is videos on YouTube trying to break it down.
Like "the hidden messages behind this is America"
https://youtu.be/9_LIP7qguYw
What the fuck?
What deep meaning is he trying to hide here through metaphors or some shit.
He is (no pun intended)shooting you in the face with the themes and messages he is trying to get across. It's incredibly artistic and just a damn good song.
And now every media outlet is trying to "break it down" with their own pop-up video monologues, like they cracked the code.
My favorite is time magazine, who at the end say it's an homage to the TRADITION of black people running away from slaves.
https://youtu.be/ESKmRiLjNpg
That's right, the TRADITION.
Oh man let's just run away from those white folks like good ole days.
Damn he really opened my eyes, I never would've realized this if not for this thoroughly researched breakdown. Thank you vox you are truly "woke" (that word is dead now)
What the fuck
I had watched it for the first time last night, and ended up watching the video 3 times before going to bed. Woke up and immediately put it on again. I'm struggling to think of a more perfect music video. This is definitely the first one I've seen that has elicited such a strong emotional response from me. There's so much to unpack with both the visuals and the music that I feel like I'm still picking up on new things with each watch.
I've been a casual fan of Gambino for a while. I've listened to his albums but never bought any or kept them in rotation. His new album is now my most anticipated release.
I've been a casual fan of Gambino for a while. I've listened to his albums but never bought any or kept them in rotation. His new album is now my most anticipated release.
That was good. Kind of reminds me of an evolution of The Prodigy Firestarter, in terms of message.
Its a great video. If you think about it the premise of the video, well one possible premise is so obvious that you wonder why someone hasn't done it before. The usage of spectacle as a distraction. I guess it just took someone with the balls and intellect to do it.
I finally got around to watching this in an effort to stay informed. I'm not really familiar with Donald Glover or his work, and I can't say I understood much of anything that happened in the video. It's frustrating in a way, since after viewing this it seems like a bunch of strung-together nonsense masquerading as something deep, but since it's getting rave reviews there probably is some deep artistic meaning that I just couldn't grasp.
Interesting video, poor to average song. Surprised people are liking it tbh. Then again God's Plan was #1 for 11 weeks . . .
He will lose but Kanye West will come on stage and be our hero once again
Grammy awards are dog shit anyway
I'm having a hard time finding a music video as impactful as this one. Are you happy now?
So yeah video of the year. Goddamn at all the hidden stuff in this. I'm really curious at the filming/creation of this. Hiro Murai is on another level right now
Love, love, love the video. Love Donald Glover/CG normally, EP was awesome. Really dig the beat and production, the only thing that would keep it out of my rotation is the lyrical style, as a lyricism guy it's not really my cup of tea. Gotta be on purpose tho
Last edited:
Interestingly, it can go two ways - the other is that in the modern age, cell phones (videos from them) are the only tools for justice that we have. I think all the kids filming at that moment supports that interpretation as well.
Layers!
Yeah that's one. I've also seen like baphomet in the same role but I'm having trouble finding examples on google.You mean like the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
He leads the kids out of town as revenge for the town refusing to pay him for ridding them of the rats. In some versions they are merely never seen again, in others they are explicitly drowned.
Please check the condescension at the door. I am not good at deriving meaning from symbolism on my own. This is a personal shortcoming that I have tried to work on but just can't seem to get better at. I have come to think of it as a disability. I enjoy hearing how others interpret works of art; if I can't get that then the art is lost on me, to my detriment.
A person being asked what they think and responding with "Figure it out for yourself" will generate frustration for me, and it's not because I don't want to think for myself.
I didn't mean to have condescension in my post to you. But it seems like you didn't really listen to his response to the question either. In your post you have quote marks around 'Figure it out for yourself" and that isn't something he said in response to the question of explaining it. Instead what he said was "I don't feel like it's my place".
What I took from that is that the point of his artistic statement here is for the viewer (you) should decide what it means to you as an individual. He doesn't want to taint that experience by essentially telling someone what they should think of his art. Each viewer might take something different away from the video and that's another reason why it's so genius. A white guy living in the burbs is going to view the video from a completely different perspective from a kid growing up in the hood because their life experience is different. So I agree with Glover. It's not his place to tell white guy from the burbs what this video means. It's important that he figures it out for himself. It's much more impactful that way.
If you really can't come up with what the video means to you individually then there are plenty of 'explanation' videos floating around youtube for you to watch. But I'll stand by my statement that it's wrong for you to be disappointed in Glover for not walking you through it.
Probably
Or it was just well hidden? He couldve been holding it and put it in his back when turning
It'd definitely have to be edited out because it's not visible at all in the back of his pants (nor an outline of it) he also never reaches his hand behind his back before he turns and then you can see that they're empty
