User:Mzaru1/sandbox

Introducing the song but not video.

"This Is America" is a song by American rapper Childish Gambino. Written and produced by Gambino and Ludwig Göransson, it was released on May 5, 2018 alongside the video, at the same time that Gambino was hosting that day's episode of Saturday Night Live. The song features background vocals by American rappers Young Thug, Slim Jxmmi, BlocBoy JB, 21 Savage and Quavo. The song addresses the issue of gun violence in the United States, the high rate of mass shootings in the United States, along with longstanding racism and discrimination against African Americans. The video of "This Is America" also displays these issues through the different scenes added to represent what he is saying in the song. The song's music video was directed by Japanese-American filmmaker Hiro Murai, a frequent Gambino collaborator. According to RCA Records, the song is not the first single from Gambino's upcoming studio album. "This Is America" became the 31st song to debut at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 becoming both Gambino's first number one and top ten single in the country. It has also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

MUSIC VIDEO

Directed by Hiro Murai who has continuously worked with Gambino, the music video for the song was released on YouTube simultaneously with Gambino's performance of the song on Saturday Night Live. The video received 12.9 million views in 24 hours and has over 410 million views. In an interview with the New York Times, Murai discussed his upcoming season for Atlanta a show involving Gambino. He stated "There’s sort of a world-weariness in both this season and the music video Murai states "They’re both reactions to what’s happening in the world." The video "This Is America" contains a lot of scenes involving violence and strong language. The video starts off with Gambino dancing through a warehouse, interacting with a series of chaotic scenes. According to Murai, the video was inspired by the films Mother! and City of God. Choreographed by Sherrie Silver, Gambino and his entourage of young dancers perform several viral dance moves including the South African Gwara Gwara and "Shoot" popularized by BlocBoy JB, who is one of the ad-lib contributors on the song. Gambino's dancing is contrasted against moments of violence. Only 53 seconds into the video, Gambino shoots a man in the back of the head with a handgun, while assuming a comical stance similar to a Jim Crow caricature. The first person depicted as being shot in the video, a guitarist who had been accompanying Gambino's singing up to that point, was musician Calvin the Second, but was initially mistaken by many viewers to be the father of 17 year-old gun violence victim Trayvon Martin. This first shooting also marks a transition in the music, from an African "folk-inspired melody" to "dark, pulsing trap".

At a later point Childish Gambino uses an automatic weapon to gun down a church choir, which viewers have interpreted as a reference to the 2015 Charleston church shooting. In both instances, a child appears from offscreen holding a red cloth, on which Gambino gently lays the weapon used, while the bodies are simply dragged away, which viewers have interpreted "as a reference to Americans' willingness to protect gun rights over people". Scenes also involved kids using their phones to record all the chaos happening in the video. Gambino sings the lyrics "This is a celly / That's a tool" Martha Tesema writer for website Mashable stated that "cell phones have been used as tools to broadcast police shooting, rioting against, or choking black people in this country". Throughout the video, numerous vehicles from several decades ago are featured, many of them with their hazard lights flashing and the driver's side door ajar, which critics interpreted as representing fatal police shootings during traffic stops, particularly the shooting of Philando Castile, who was shot while in a 1997 Oldsmobile; others have interpreted that the older model cars represent the relative lack of upward mobility of African-Americans. American singer SZA makes a cameo appearance towards the end of the video, seated atop one of these vehicles. The video ends with Gambino in a darkened portion of the warehouse, fearfully running towards the camera while being chased by several white people. Viewers have said this resembles scenes from the film Get Out.