POP SONG REVIEW: "This Is America" by Childish Gambino

Todd releases his long-awaited thoughts on Donald Glover's magnum opus. Surprise: He's way out of his depth!
(Support Todd on Patreon! / toddintheshadows )

[@soulsparx]

honestly i dont really think of This is America as a song. It's more of a performance, everything needs to come together for the full experience to be there. The music, the sound effects, the visuals, you can't have just one or two of those because then it's not the full message

[@riahlexington]

True

[@pecklespeckle1]

I agree with that

[@neernou1738]

isnt that all songs i dont agree

[@micaylarobbins5727]

neernou Not really, a lot of songs have music videos just for the fun of it and a lot of them don’t even really match the song, but with This is America the music video and the song reflect each other and compliment each other, and as the original comment said, if you just listen to the song without watching the video it’s harder to grasp the message without the visual aspect.

[@idontneedaname318]

Yeah, it's clear that the song is not meant to listened to without accompaniment

[@reinadelaapocalipsis8603]

It's about foreground vs. background. In the foreground you have the distracting black stereotypes and in the background you have absolute chaos. The audio is supposed to be generic because in order to satirize trap and its purpose, Gambino has to engage in it. This is one of those rare cases where the song is made for the video, not the other way around. Here's an easy way to make sense of it: after the opening gunshot, spend all your time watching what's happening in the background. Once you realize: A) There is a lot of interesting and symbolic shit happening in the background and B) it is really hard to focus on that with the dancers. And that's the essential statement of the song. Everything is turning to shit (especially in black communities) but you can't see that because you're getting keys jingled in your face. There's no way to get the keys out of your face, so you have to take it upon yourself to dig deeper and fix the problems you find.

[@levi1929]

Storm Clarke I feel you are 100% correct here. It’s a new world, so a multimedia concept makes more sense. We’re being assaulted using all of our senses. Flashy pics begging you to buy things and keep America Amercaning. Our brothers and sisters feel like they live in a system which would rather shoot them, or use a cell as a tool and keep them in line than to share its wealth and prosperity. You don’t have to be black to understand that. We’re all in this.

[@gateauxq4604]

In the same line of thinking I think the criticism of the article on Atlanta also didn’t grasp what he was saying. The show has a drop of David Lynch in it which increasingly makes it feel ethereal while also bleeding into reality. Media has evolved to the point where it’s not something special we indulge in at home or go out to enjoy as a treat. Media is with people possibly more so after you leave the house. Phones, tablets, laptops, video billboards, a constant soundtrack playing in the background that blends with what you hear in music-it’s all transcending what 20th century media was and if anyone is gonna grasp and understand this it’s Donald Glover. He has so many hyphens that they should just give him a PHD in hyphenating.

[@VictoriaSobocki]

Storm Clarke I didn’t really think about that, thank you

[@galactor123]

Well not only that, but much like a lot of foreground black music is ingested by an audience without context, so are the lyrics without the context of the background. There actually is a number of rather poignant lyrics in the song when you seperate them out and compare them with what is going in the background, compared to just what is being said literally as a song. As many people have said, it's a performance piece, not a song. In fact the fact that it is a song is inherent to the entire message. People are going to make "This is America" the song big, to the point where its going to get played on radios, where it loses the context and becomes simply pop music that people enjoy on the merits of music. Much like a lot of rap and black culture has been done. Sanitize it, boil it down to something that mass media can take in, and sell it to the American people. Or in short, without the context of the lived experience of the video (or, allegorically, that of Black America) the song "This is America" sounds like everything else. Something to dance to without questioning where it came from or what it means to those that created it or to the experiences that formed it. Or even shorter: The entire message of the music video version of it is precisely the first like 15 or 20 seconds of it, and Todds reaction. Dancing, then gun shots, then the stunned silence of those who have never heard those shots as they aren't in the radio version. Shit indeed.

[@keelanbarron928]

But here's the thing: the whole point IS the music! So if it's supposed to be played with a video, then it FAILS!

[@Force-hiddenmasquerade]

If Migos was political it’d be Rain drop Drop top Gettin arrested by the cop cop

[@dan-ox8cw]

COOKIE

[@freddyfazballs261]

(accidentally deleted when trying to edit) 123 all the kids bully me but they're not so cool cause I shot up the school YEAH

[@dylan2588]

Lol

[@goheezy6744]

Kill all old people

[@multijxde1855]

😂😭

[@somedudewatchintv5297]

I'm pretty sure the song is meant to be about how white audiences are happy to view black culture with all the popular dances and songs but are willing to ignore us whenever there's violence perpetrated against us through various means. The choir scene for example I think was a specific reference to when Dylan roof went to a black church to specifically kill black people; he got McDonald's on the way to the station. There's also the issue of gun violence in general with guns put up on a pedestal(almost literally in the video) above there victims. Whenever someone like Kolin Kapernick stands up(or kneels as the case may be) and asks that society in general to acknowledge and correct it they get put down and excuses are made. I believe there are references to many shootings in the video and the point is to display them in contrast to the happier image many people that aren't effected would prefer to focus on.

[@mystical5868]

@@Snobbishbumpkin He doesn't mention any crime, you apparently never heard the song. And single mothers =/= no father, and the fact is that it's more common for white fathers not to be around than it is for black fathers not to be around. White people are not shot by cops at a higher rate, they are shot numerically more frequently, those are not the same thing. And nah.

[@mystical5868]

@fire rises Can white supremacists even make their points without lying with statistics they poorly understand? Why don't you take responsibility for learning how they work?

[@gateauxq4604]

www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-america-by-the-numbers it’s not that simple and 60% of cases they could have used were unsolved. That was back before it became ok to openly be a white supremacist too so I’m sure the ‘numbers’ have ‘changed.’ Don’t bring random numbers to a statistics fight, guys.

[@GhGh-ci8ld]

Gateaux Q the statistic theyre citing is one that states arrests not convictions. aka, they couldve been arrested (which we all know what racial profiling is, correct?) and not been convicted for the crime. not to mention, these statistics dont mention where all these crimes are happening or most prominent. since people wanna make it an “african american” thing and not a fucking poverty thing. you know where crime is high? impoverished areas. you know who lives in impoverished areas? mostly minorities. You dont see black people in middle class neighborhoods dealing drugs and robbing places. it has nothing to do with blackness, and everything to do with the area in which you live. no one brings up the high rates of violent crime in texas, illinois, or Tennessee. primarily WHITE places. or the fact that having your school shot up is far worse than just living in a bad fucking neighborhood.

[@Jestokost]

fire rises another reactionary spouting dogwhistle statistics as if crime occurs in a vacuum instead of as a direct result of the material conditions the population lives under. Crime correlates better to socioeconomic class than race. It just so happens that, due to around 400 years of being dicked over, black people are more likely to be poor than white people. Stop pretending that history has no weight. The legacy of structural racism didn’t just evaporate when the Civil Rights Act was passed. To think otherwise is naive at best.

[@cyclone313]

"Four years ago, one of the biggest hits was literally titled "Happy". This year, one of the biggest hits is literally titled "Sad!"" Huh. Never thought about it like that.

[@Daniel33487]

Saul Badman Symbolism!!!

[@Wired4Life2]

In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if more of the other half joining the #WalkAway movement will further render the song into a time capsule of political projection.

[@NJSmithMusic]

And the dude singing Sad! is literally dead.

[@beneales]

To be fair, one of our biggest hits this year has also been “I Like It”.

[@thema1998]

ATB Pop That's sad in itself. Just when XXXTentacion tried to change his horrible ways, he ends up getting gunned down at 20.

[@YouGottaFaxe]

This performance can be understood on 3 level: 1. Societal violence towards black people, particularly relating police violence to the historical violence of the confederates 2. The culpability of the black entertainers of distracting from the problem and enticing the black community into lifestyles that perpetuate the issue 3. Self awareness that his own performance is guilty of the second point.

[@dsnever3041]

You got it perfect

[@BrandonToy]

The person in the video doing violence is the black man. Black on black violence.

[@peachscentedskulls]

the washy saying-nothing lyrics are sarcastic, like most of it. while the rich brag about gucci, real americans wade through gun violence and drugs. the sharp changes in tone- soulful, bang, rap, choir, bang, rap; this is what you see, this is how it is. this is america.

[@riahlexington]

Amen

[@midosworld]

i think you’re skipping over race in your explanation. i know this comment is pretty old-ish now but i wanted to point that out.

[@thequinlanshow3326]

Translation: 100% effort on the video, 0% effort on the song

[@KeDe1606]

@@thequinlanshow3326no. 100% effort on both. One can’t, and was never meant to, exist without the other. Every single minute detail in the video coincides with every single minute detail of the song. You can’t just watch/listen to one and go „yep, I got it“. Because that’s not how this „song“ is supposed to be viewed. You’re literally doing the exact same thing this song satirizes/makes fun of

[@thequinlanshow3326]

It's bad on purpose!!! It's ironic!!! Maybe Gambino is just shit at making music? Not like hes ever been a good/real rapper. This song is legitimately awful. This song is literally nothing without the music video

[@Matrim42]

“We live in absolutely appalling fucking times” Oh, 2018 Todd, you sweet summer child.

[@8bitorgy]

This.

[@ritacirocavalcante]

Correction: we have been living in absolutely appalling fucking times.

[@mrsuns10]

More like absolutely absurd times

[@krzlcve]

felt

[@a.j.gibson6717]

@@ritacirocavalcante ummm… your comment says 2 months ago. Honestly this year might be the best we’ve had in the past 5 years

[@RyanHollinger]

It's funny how extremely analysed it's become yet it's mostly in regards to the visuals. I can't remember who said it, but not a lot of people have pointed out how it loses much of its provocative qualities went listened to purely as an audio track... which given it's a song, you'd think the audio would be the centrepiece and most accessible part. But like what you said, it wasn't made for me, even if I found it powerfully captivating.

[@tdawson198]

Ryan Hollinger is this is a song, or is it a music video? To analyse it as separated from the music video which is so clearly tied to it is like analysing a single after the album comes out without ever mentioning the context of the album

[@savaralyn0951]

This, the song itself is pretty weak, and considering it's MUSIC, it feels like the song failed a little in that regard.

[@damienman25]

I've heard about 3 analysis that inspected the lyrics of the song, more how it's presented. One was how every time Donald says "Black man" the mustic track stops for a second to signify..something, I can't remember. I mean I thought it was interesting enough to remember that it's a thing but in regards to a song it just doesn't impress me. I'm not a huge fan of trap to begin with so the message should have grabbed me, as a "black man". Also how the references to other artists uh..noise..things are supposed to be subversive or..parody or something. I don't recall. As a song in itself it just doesn't grab me the same way a song like, say Nirvana's "Polly" does. Too many references to things I just don't get or don't relate to me because they just aren't my thing. I remember watching a live version of "This is America" and I couldn't enjoy it the same way I enjoyed the video. Not that this is all a bad thing, mind. If it's more of a visual thing then it is what it is. While it might be too vague to deliver a clear message (which also isn't a bad thing per se) I think it does what it set out to do pretty well, so I can't hate on it too much.

[@thema1998]

Ryan Hollinger The song itself is kind of weak without the music video. It just doesn't feel the same.

[@KIRA-EL]

Ryan Hollinger yeah I got that the visuals are the point in this case and that's fine.

[@nerglersstuff8890]

I think what This is America is trying to say is simply this: "Help."

[@hidbid1]

Yep

[@Doctor-Infinite]

You just managed to put everything about this song into one word: Thank you

[@lucify8143]

𝐘𝐞𝐩

[@baronvonbeandip]

America is so far up it's own ass, it doesn't know to ask for help.

[@DittoAPokemon]

They lyrics are the same as the video; Look at this, don't pay attention to what is really happening. "Look at the fun dancing, not the people frantically running in the background" or "listen to all this cool shit I have, also there's huge gun issues in black areas, but I'm rich." It's a critique of how America fetishizes black people while still mistreating them, young black boys get shot in the street but we'll still bump mindless rap about money and fast cars, but lampoon rappers who try and actually talk about real issues in their music for making music "too political" (which music IS politics but okay). The Migos stuff i also part of the commentary, he is playing into stereotypes of rap because that's what white people fetishsize And like has been said, it's a performance piece, you need to experience all of it together, not just the song.

[@michaelotis223]

its like hiding in plain sight

[@emmettmajor2245]

"It doesn't have replay value." 2020: It is literally the soundtrack of our lives

[@Atomicslash]

I keep circling back to it this year as well

[@niclyx7970]

@strontiumXnitrate You can just say white supremacists it's a lot shorter.

[@fedorafluke]

@Random Scottish Bloke it ain't bruv

[@fedorafluke]

@Random Scottish Bloke we can agree to disagree

[@danka1167]

Listen to blacker the berry or story of oj

[@dragonetafireball]

I mostly see it about ignoring horrible stuff because of flashy distractions. That might just be me.

[@thapoint09saltaccount20]

That's pretty much the gist

[@Baider808]

Dragoneta Slayer Or even just becoming so desensitized to it...

[@meggerz5687]

I think the song lyrics are purposely simple to distract the viewer. When you first watch it you’re distracted by the song and dancing until you watch it again and pay attention to the details. The only time the horror is obvious is the shooting parts. Kinda like when shootings happen and is in the news and you can’t ignore it. I think it was made vague to get people thinking sociologically

[@la_arana_discoteca]

That's what I thought when I first watched the video. All the Jim Crow/minstrel imagery echoed in the video, juxtaposed with horrible violence, kinda backs that up, but even the lyrics (within context) aren't as pointless as Todd makes them out to be. There are two viewpoints in the song: The Black voices putting on a happy show for White America ("We just want to party/Party just for you") and the cynical descriptions of trap music themes like drugs and guns. Those are the distractions, not only in terms of distracting listeners from the point of the song (which I think only comes through in that section with the "barcode" line at the end) but also representative of the ways African Americans have distracted themselves. There's a promise of finally achieving the American Dream if you can just get your money, so ignore the bad stuff and do what you have to do, right?

[@Xetelian]

Kinda like how we forget about mass shootings and discourse on them about 2 weeks after they happen until the next one happens a few months later?

[@treflosho]

I appreciate how you can admit that you don't get the message here instead of writing off the song completely as "this doesn't make sense to me so it's stupid". Much respect for that Todd.

[@Anna-jx2mo]

@@cangrejopendejo4909 all these comments explaining exactly what its supposed to mean and you decide to ignore them and type this willingly ignorant ass comment telling all of the world that you're pretty much just fucking racist. Crazy

[@AW-hn6ro]

@@Anna-jx2mo don't waist your time, he's too far gone

[@thequinlanshow3326]

Thats because there is no message in the actual song. The actual song is completely worthless and meaningless. Without the music video this song exactly what it is. A half finished shitty generic pop rap song. Doesn’t help that the beat is awful and doesnt help Gambino's terrible delivery

[@razburry8001]

@@thequinlanshow3326 That's why he did it tho, it's poking fun at how the American music industry (and pretty much America as a whole) is nowadays. Nothing but bland, generic, meaningless garbage.

[@thequinlanshow3326]

@@razburry8001 I understand what he was going for. The music video with the song is really good and has a great message. I just have a problem with the opinion that the song itself has a good message, as a song it's maybe a 3/10 at best because it just doesnt sound finished. It's probably the only song I can think of that's such a big difference between the song by itself and the song with the music video lol

[@jakobsmith5575]

The song is purely ironic in its lyrics. It uses stereotypical rap lyrics in a lazy tone to get the point across of how the industry is in this day and age. It also uses very basic drum and bass style "trap" beats because he knew that it would get the attention of the average rap audience

[@alwaysfallingshort]

I don't get how people don't recognize this first. He's not a trap musician, the rest of the album is barely a rap album. He's embracing popular black musical styles, not even necessary to lampoon them, but to contextualize it. Why is rap music becoming more vapid and materialistic? Because that's the avenue of success young black people have. The song opens with a traditional choir, and that motif returns several times throughout the song. He then goes into trap music and starts talking about all of the things he needs to be great in america, like a gun. The choir later sings what his traditional grandmother from the previous generation told him: "Black man, get your money." Then the final verse although hard to understand wraps the whole thing up: To society, black men are just barcodes--dogs chained up in the back yard with fast cars and jewelry. Even without the video, there's a ton of symbolism in his language and musical choices. I'm glad Todd recognized he probably just doesn't get it, because that's what I feel like a lot of people who criticize this song's hype are just being obtuse or can't empathize.

[@0siccy0]

​@@alwaysfallingshort I don't see a connection between barcodes and dogs. And why don't they break those societal expectations? They could just stop spending all that money on fast cars and jewelry? Also becoming more vapid and materialistic to have mainstream success is no black people thing, it's an everybody thing. At least that is what lots of companies seem to believe. Isn't that what everybody is complaining about? Once interesting concepts and products being watered down to appeal to the 'bigger audience'.

[@alwaysfallingshort]

@@0siccy0 Those are the lyrics.. not my opinion.

[@ZiddersRooFurry]

@@0siccy0 " They could just stop spending all that money on fast cars and jewelry? " "Prejudice is a form of bias from individual to individual. Institutionalized oppression happens when social and written rules, laws, regulations, curriculum, media images, privileges, etc., allow a dominant group as a whole to benefit at the expense of a subordinate group. Institutionalized oppression creates great injustices that can affect a person’s quality of life in hard practical realities such as where they are able to live; whether their families can afford to take care of them; struggles with social problems that are rooted in despair; their access to health care; their educational and job opportunities; whether they are more likely to be targeted for violence; and how they are treated by public safety officials or health care providers. Sometimes people who have been oppressed can become so frustrated and hurt that the oppression gets internalized as rage. This rage most often gets expressed internally though self-destructive behavior and negative beliefs about themselves. Sometimes this rage gets expressed externally through attacks on others. People who are in subordinate groups are flooded with assumptions, images, and realities that shape their view of who they are and affect the way others treat them. As a result, people often subconsciously accept the dominant group’s belief that they are not as worthy. Or they subconsciously collude with the dominant group in oppressing some other group that is seen as even less worthy." www.kidpower.org/library/article/understanding-institutionalized-oppression/ Black people who are denied opportunities see rap music and the powerful corporate-owned labels that control the genre as being their only way out of the oppressive conditions they live in. It's systemized oppression.

[@tarmanjrakathegooch]

Not a trap beat at all...

[@Ninjaverse45]

this video is solid proof of three things: 1)todd is (or was) a fan of green day 2)todd ain't black 3)he gets trap music now

[@hidbid1]

2) As far as YOU know.

[@abadlydrawnsnowman1648]

todd is mixed

[@MsJessica23456]

The Todd conspiracy is all coming together. I have my new piece of information that has slowly brought this mystery to a close. 1. Male 2. Not Black I will soon find out his identity.

[@Silverizael]

Isn't Todd hispanic? Or at least part hispanic?

[@thabinominkosi9672]

murry lmao plz email me wen u know

[@eatyourcereal5791]

murry He’s 34 years old and his name is Todd Nathanson.

[@the-NightStar]

Todd is actually an English teacher who is female, named Ellen Baker and exists entirely in a Japanese school textbook as a constant source of regret porn. So yeah bro, you were WAY off. :P

[@TheDarkMessiah]

He's mentioned his mother's side of the family being refugees/coming from...cuba, I think it was? (either way, I'm pretty sure there's an inadvertent face reveal of him in a lindsay video from disneyworld)

[@Avossk]

A classic Todd move, reviewing a song months after it’s become relevant, never change my dude

[@certifiedbootygoon]

I actually kind of like that. Gives him time to think it over past the surface level and shows he does this because he cares, not to get views.

[@Avossk]

Michael Sabsabi Yeah I’m not complaining either just saying its such a Todd thing to do

[@MykiiMescal]

2 new singles by gambino even

[@mikecraig2062]

Avossk hey he ain't the only one, rap critic does that all the time.

[@wildscooty7392]

Avossk FUCK YOU

[@krusher181]

I think it’s satire. Like, he’s facing a mirror to everything young black people are expected of. I don’t think it’s a criticism of trap, more a criticism of how dangerous the tropes are, and he’s pointing out how blinded people are by the entertainment factor and become sheep obsessed with Gucci and guns.

[@33nihilus]

I think it also has a lot to do with how black culture is portrayed on video compared to the reality. Like.. people think hood is cool, but hood fucking sucks. Theres a reason people try to get out.

[@LCJB97116]

This just popped up on my recommended again and considering the current events in 2020.....it still works. Maybe it's because I'm black mixed that I get it and I reference it as a political stance but also literally America was never meant for black equality and I think this song is a tribute to that idea. We turned to selling drugs to make money more often than not because money is how your "earn your place" in America, but once you do that you have to uphold the "black boss" image or the "bad bitch" identity. Glubber is neither of those things but recognizes our community rarely gets the spotlight in other ways. It's become a hard rooted stereotype but also it's turned into a necessity to talk about in trap music which is why I think he included the other trap stereotypes. It's ironic, it's uncomfortable, it's true and the song poses a bleak outlook that's currently only getting more prominent. We mess up and we're dead, the system is okay with that and America still expects the loud-base-trap-rap-twerkfest music to be produced tomorrow. We're stuck in a cycle, a system that doesn't care and country where you get more publicity being dead than you do any other day. At least that's my vibe currently, it may be wrong but the Minneapolis cops aren't disproving my theory either.

[@lucify8143]

strontiumXnitrate Yes

[@braindamage2285]

Anybody, with an open mind, or anybody who is able to look over the plates border(

[@cymraegpunk1420]

@strontiumXnitrate where have you been?

[@Generationrhino]

America wasn't meant for anyone who wasn't a rich landowner already.

[@seanlux2214]

@Brain Damage Congratulations, you just summed up every other civilized nation while singling out the US! 👏

[@Cool_Calm_Cam]

The song really doesn't work as a standalone song, but I think that's kind of the point. Combined with the video, the lyrics are about distracting the listener. All of the awful visuals go on in the background while he dances in the foreground. Don't pay attention to what's really going on--just watch him dance.

[@alwaysfallingshort]

I disagree. The video adds several layers and deepens the message, but if you go read the lyrics and listen to the song without the gunfire you can see the original songs message clearly. It's a tongue-in-cheek trap song about why trap is obsessed with being hard and violent in a society that is violent and already thinks black people are too. It indulges in trap without being a parody, contrasts it to traditional southern baptist choirs, and then connects them with Grandma's advice to concern himself with financial wealth. That trap music and materialism is a logical progression from where black folks have come from and what it means to be successful and black. The final sung verse wraps all of this up, though it's admittedly hard to hear, at least for me.

[@bondjames8225]

I think that all of the shallow lyrics that he repeats in the final verse and all the popular dances he did were meant to be a bit of a parody of black pop culture while the real world happens in the background. He is the black performer putting on a fake happy "look at me" show and that the media and social media focuses on while riots and public shootings go on all around them and kind of get faded in to the back ground. This is why the whole video stops for a second whenever someone gets shot. There is a legit moment of pause to think about how sudden and shocking and horrific what just happened was, and then its right back to the song and dance. Just like real public consciousness.

[@ergotNalkaloid]

I think separating the music from the lyrics is a flawed approach. This reminds me a lot of a Nirvana song. There's a lot of vague statements juxtaposed with the music, to create a feeling of dramatic irony. You can't break down the ingredients to get what it's made of. You have to take it as a whole. There's humor there, but it's sardonic, maybe even a little cruel.

[@holyravioli5795]

But its music? You listen to music, not watch it.

[@romanmacharoni]

But you can't watch a radio when you're listening in the car.

[@iankrasnow5383]

@@holyravioli5795 Maybe it's more performance art than music. You can listen to a show tune on its own, but you won't really get the full meaning from it unless you see the show too.

[@GhGh-ci8ld]

\Levi - l\ plus /net -n/ plus /sue/ equals Ivainesu they were talking about the music (as in the genres that are incorporated in the song) and the lyrics. not the music video and the song. the lyrics on their own may seem jumbled, but within the context of the genre he raps in vs the lyrics of the choir, the statements are being made throughout the tone and the lyrics of the song. yall ever go to black church? he’s got the gospel music playing, pure over the choir singing “grandma told me get your money black man”. there’s a connecting between a god fearing granny telling her son to get his money, and when the trap music plays, it becomes a downward spiral of materialism as well as commentary on the lengths black men go to get their money (guns, violence, gucci, cops). thats just one example. and its my own interpretation. even the inclusion of a gospel choir, and sort of african (dont quote me on that) sounding instrumental while rapping and using trap beat could be seen as a celebration and a commentary on black culture.

[@putridmoldyman306]

@@holyravioli5795 Its ok, because this isnt music

[@itsbosh3345]

The song's message is not portrayed properly without the visuals. The reason why the lyrics and flow are so basic is because he's saying that stereotypical Trap music about basic black stereotypes are a distraction and possibly a reason for the chaos and discrimination that the black community endures. But without the video, we don't get that message from the song alone.

[@yoshimasterleader]

The message is there and obtainable without the video but would it be as strong without it? probably not. The video and song strengthen each other. The song was released like this for a reason.

[@Michael-hn5cj]

I don't think it is talking about reasons but symptoms. We've made some progress since the civil rights era, but have gone no further. The black community is kept down by a few key pressure points that don't go away. If you've spent time in both poor white America (i.e. Trump towns, rust belt type of places) and poor black America, it's easy to see the contrast. Being poor in America is fucking rough. If you are poor and black, you live with an added fog of oppression. No matter how much you struggle and fight, you can't get ahead. A lot of music and black culture reflects this hopelessness.

[@evamiller4886]

It’s not really a song, it’s a performance in my opinion. It doesn’t need to mean anything without the context of the video.

[@supermudkip975]

“You’re not supposed to play this at parties” Wish someone told that to the DJ at my prom

[@allineedismusicnlove]

Ugh no....

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

Big oof

[@Not_Mii_Uus]

Honestly I feel like the reaction to the song says as much about America as the song itself. We all resonate with it but we don't know why. We're all just partying until the next crisis and then we're just trying to survive on bread and water until the crisis is over. We knew that, and he was just declaring it for the world to see, and we resonated because it was the first person to be like, this is America in a sort of backwards-articulate way. He said virtually nothing of substance that wasn't vague and edgy, or ironic, and yet we all clung on to it because in today's America we're all so desperate for a voice or a cause to get behind. The fact that we all understood it and the truth behind it was, from what I can gather, the most significant truth un-written into the song. Either this song is an incredibly well-thought out art-piece that speaks to a dispossessed generation longing for something of substance, or it's another party song, a cloud of smoke trying to occupy space, and we are all just seeing something, some sliver meaning that was never really there. Either way, it says a lot about where we are.

[@DendyJungle]

"woah dude this song is gonna change things" literally a week later and everyone forgot about it. Almost like the shootings it's talking about

[@strangething7379]

Almost feels like the fact that the song/music video was forgotten so quickly kinda proves Gambino's point: that our society thrives on fast-moving trends and events. Always from moving from one thing to the next, but never really digesting what we're seeing or making change: just seeing and then forgetting.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

I also think the fans of this song taking it too seriously didn't help either.

[@anxez]

... Kinda feels like it might have been the point of that song. But I personally have kinda fallen for the song.

[@godihateyoupeople7173]

Strangething or maybe that it was only pushed so hard because that han solo flop was coming out shortly after? And of course because it had a video lefty types can "analyse" till the cows come home

[@Miriam_J_]

godihateyoupeople You seem like the kind of guy who’d go into an innocent girl power video and screech feminism is cancer.

[@rileycannon6789]

Im a fan Todd but you really missed this one entirely the character Childish Gambino who is a stand in for the entertainment industry as a whole won't shut up about Gucci and cars and selling drugs while the country is falling apart the vapidness is the message people are dieing but that doesn't matter we need to put out another hit song/season of a show/empty superhero movie and every once in a while something messed up enough happened that kicks you back into paying attention to what's going on around you but then the music and dancing starts back up and you stop seeing the bodies lying there

[@austin8361]

Opinions are subjective

[@austin8361]

@Jennifer Olughor and my opinion is that they're criticism is pointless because opinions are subjective.

[@austin8361]

@Jennifer Olughor opinions are not exempt from criticism, you're right, but they are assuming that Todd "missed something" if you disagree with someone's opinion that's difference from criticizing their thought process. Also I didn't say that you couldn't criticize anything I specifically meant people are allowed not to like something and sometimes you have to live with that. So I could have known everything that the original commenter said and still not liked it. I think its weird to criticize someone's musical taste.

[@rileycannon6789]

@@austin8361 as I said I'm a fan of todd I like the guy. I did think he missed things in this song but I don't care if he likes it or not. I think that he tried to only take the song as it was when really the song and music video are inherently connected and you can't take the song on its own. He said in the review that he is not sure what childish gambino is trying to say as the lyrics seem vapid and empty. And I'm saying that yes they are vapid and empty and it's the point. That's the point of the start of the song we just want to party yak yak yak go away.

[@denislemieux4915]

@@rileycannon6789 You're correct that "the song and music video are inherently connected". It is more a multimedia art piece. Todds whole thing is analyzing songs. Not the videos really. So, I don't think he really missed anything overall, he's just only looking at one part of an art piece. Just listening to the lyrics doesn't adequately get the point across. A song like "Fuck the Police" doesn't need a video for the listener to understand it.

[@beau9956]

The lyrics like "Look how I'm geekin' out (hey) I'm so fitted (I'm so fitted, woo) I'm on Gucci (I'm on Gucci) I'm so pretty (yeah, yeah) I'm gon' get it (ayy, I'm gon' get it) Watch me move (blaow)" "Hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands (hunnid bands) Contraband, contraband, contraband (contraband) I got the plug in Oaxaca (woah) They gonna find you like "blocka" (blaow)" Are sung while there is a shit-ton of stuff going on in the background, I think its trying to say like "THIS (hunnid bands) is what we are focusing on while there is so much shit going on in the background. He is using lyrics like this to literally show the distraction that is put before people to stop them from seeing what "America" really is. It is a song BUT I think its meant to be consumed visually as much as it is meant to be a listening experience.. when its just listening experience you're missing half the message. ...BOOM Mic drop.

[@codynovick5701]

Does this song make a little more sense for you in 2020?

[@RadarLockey]

Yeah. It is interesting seeing this now...

[@bigolsimp9423]

This is one of 2020 Anthems

[@mrb152]

Well no, this is all about how bad guns are. In 2020 with widespread pandemic, overstretched police we see that gun ownership is indeed important. And the Floyd murder was by strangulation, not a gun.... so,

[@mariamatedei]

@@mrb152 it is NOT about gun violence, it's about how hard it can be to be black in America, and the overall message of the video it's that there are a lot of issues that are hard to see because so much is happening at the same time and sometimes we either forget to pay attention or are forced to dig with all out strength to even begin to understand what's going on.

[@andressotil4671]

This song was ahead of it's time

[@misterb3577]

People keep talking about the lyrics, but you have to understand that the lyrics are purposefully empty in this song. They literally mean nothing, just a bunch of cliche rap shit, and only serve as a distraction, just like Glover's dancing in the video. The simple gist of the video is that we distract ourselves from the horrors of the world with mindless entertainment, cookie-cutter songs with fluff lyrics and snappy beats, and the latest memes and dances. Meanwhile, the world is slowly going to hell around us, and the reality of that only really hits when there's some huge crisis that is covered in the news, like the latest mass shootings (where we're then forced to watch as gun rights are given far more value than the lives of the people taken by them). But...even that fear is temporary, as we quickly return to our endless distractions to forget how terrifying things truly are around us. In this video, he is talking more to black people than other races, as there are a unnervingly large number of blacks who've given themselves to the empty fantasies crafted in rap lyrics and entertainment, while ignoring how terrible things are getting in the world around them. The true irony though is that this song literally becomes the fluffy nothingness of a pop song that it parodies when you only listen to the audio.

[@Lil_Smo]

YES!

[@Marie-hj6wg]

I couldn't have said it better.

[@iLeviathan]

MisterB Yet the world is the best it has been. How do people not realize that

[@misterb3577]

@@iLeviathan Probably because those people aren't among the ones who benefit the most from current events.

[@iLeviathan]

MisterB Look back in history. You being able to make comments and watch KZbin.

[@CazTheGamerGuy]

This is the comments section.

[@xillo478]

Don't catch you typin' now

[@jakmanxyom]

Don't catch you readin' now...

[@staticsyndrome2011]

Black man, get yo likes

[@OLBICHL]

I'M ON CAPS-LOCK _I'm so italic_

[@theactualbajmahal833]

Static Syndrome: +1, but "Black man, get yo up votes" matches the cadence better.

[@serg1813141]

Sattire my dude, it's a greater retrospective on the black experience which is why I think you're not getting the beauty of it, and you're seeking more concrete answers, but it's supposed to be subtle cause it's for them, like many of the things you said in the video it's commentary on black wealth and being puppets for the white man, and obviously all the actual injustice they've gone through throughout history in a visual/auditory art piece, it's more than just a song it's supposed to be catchy and poppy ironically,but also have subtle or whateverthefuck of wokeness, it's supposed to bring up a conversation and bring up opinion it's not supposed to tell you the direct message, if you know Glover you understand, dude's a good writer, like a creator.

[@hicclesilly]

If there is anything we truly know about this song It’s the fact that Donald is a damn good dancer

[@artistwithouttalent]

Thank you, Todd. I've been waiting for a non-snooty English major to explain this.

[@gabe_s_videos]

That's what I love about Todd, he's one of the few people who knows how to be funny and socially conscious at the same time.

[@artistwithouttalent]

Robogabriel It's not just funny and socially conscious, it's an explanation that doesn't look down on me for asking.

[@ludy41]

But....he didn't explain SHIT

[@starbird3939]

I wonder if Gambino is commenting on the materialism and nonchalance of America, especially when paired in the video. But yeah, you NEED the video with the sound editing.

[@Penguin_Tree]

To me it's about trying to get through everyday while all the racism is constantly going on. And the gun shot points are how we have a black person murdered and it's big and loud for a second and then everyone goes back to normal and just keeps a cycle

[@ashiqali4933]

The main thing this song is trying to say is that being a black man in America all of the problems have just been hidden by themselves through the constant bragging and the whole I got Gucci I’m a gangsta all that shit which is a criticism on the way they try to pull away from the reality

[@avenues20s]

1. After the murder happens it goes back to cliche rap lyrics about so it *COULD* imply how America forgets about black deaths 2. The choir sings for a black guy to get money which is hard in America and gambino shoots them down literally 3. In the beginning it talks about blacks partying or enjoying life but like gets shot for no reason which could be saying America goes out of its way to put blacks at a disadvantage Thats my thoughts

[@darkJman77]

Always watching scary thing is there is a mass murder almost every day it's just become so mundane and regular news don't cover the majority of them. Like it literally needs to be in the double digits for any news coverage from the national news.

[@charlesmartiniii1405]

NihilisticEntropy listen to to pimp a butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. That'll give ya a better perspective

[@NegativePleasure]

NihilisticEntropy You don't get out much, do you?

[@stephanierodriguez5498]

shinigami san I think the choir singing black man get your money is about how apologetic America is about black people with every saying making such a big deal how progressive they are. Idk.

[@LHerra]

The choir is also probably a reference to the Charleston, SC shooting. Unlike the first gunshot of the single man, there's a pause in the action like the media outrage we had but then it too got lost in everything.

[@xshadowscreamx]

The song just does not work without the video.

[@sonofan403]

Message wise maybe, but the song still a bop

[@OutOfTheShadows1]

and this is why i make fun of modern western pop. when even the songs said to have meaning constantly fuck up at that, or kill the mood. (whyyyyy did people love that shitty song by logic with its shouts of WHO CAN RELATE WOO?)

[@NiteMaster117]

Radio Raven Then it has utterly failed as a song.

[@donanderson3653]

Who said it was trying to be a song? It was released as a music video.

[@BabysitterSky]

Don Anderson lol who said it was trying to be a song? Everyone. It's a song.

[@ThatGuyfromBrazil]

A couple people said this video was slightly pretentious... Maybe I can kinda agree, but if Gambino was being pretentious, there wouldn't be so much detail in the background, all these subtle things like movements, the dancing, the car models, the white horse and so on being put all around for a good eye to spot. Maybe it can be about all the ideas Todd proposed at once, though. Like it was a deliberately-open interpretation.

[@Sound_Judgement]

The word “pretentious” gets way overused in conversations/reviews about music. Pretty much anything that’s trying to be profound is “pretentious” somehow, when the word literally just means “attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.” However, if the thing is actually making a great statement about something actually important and doing it in a nuanced, detailed way, then there is no “pretension” as the effort earns praise. I feel like “This Is America” is far too researched, detailed, and precisely constructed to possibly be pretentious; it earned its bold statements and grandiosity. But hey, that’s just what I think.

[@ThatGuyfromBrazil]

@@Sound_Judgement Actually, I agree with you on that. It makes too much sense and it uses too many intrinsic details to be "pretentious".

[@roguishpaladin]

@@Sound_Judgement It's even worse than that. Conservatives in particular prefer not to have their beliefs challenged (and I mean this by the definition of conservative, where conservatives prefer that things remain at the status quo or return to how they used to be rather than attempting to proactively seek change). Thus, it's easy for them to dismiss anything seeking change as pretentious - they're OK with the status quo, so everyone else should be too. When you hear the phrase "I don't want to hear about politics" the person is (often unwittingly) defining themselves as a conservative. Sadly, when you get people disengaged with social governance, you can then get away with a lot of horrible things, as today's environment shows us.

[@appleinatophat1089]

Demon days? That was great commentary on the Bush times.

[@sugarrush227]

i was about to say- uHm diRTy hArrY guYs

[@travcollier]

Fair point. BTW: "Integral" by Pet Shop Boys... I'm afraid it is going to be one of those perennially relevant songs. Of course also "I'm with Stupid"... and the whole album Fundamental really.

[@jakemauger8377]

^ This. Also The Eminem Show and Encore?

[@greasyt9400]

🎶🎵these demon days are so cold inside, it's so hard for good folks to survive. You cant even trust the air you breathe 'Cause mother earth wants us all to leave.🎶🎵

[@CasaiAgicap]

@@jakemauger8377 we don't talk about Encore

[@Phono_Wizard]

I personally believe the song and video touch on a couple different things. 1. That gun violence is out of control and is potentially leading us into real trouble. Hence the riots in the background seemingly triggered by the gun violence. 2. That race relations right now are not great. In the back ground during part of vid during the riot scenes a white person is seen being thrown over a rail by black people, potentially insinuating racially motivated violence. there is also a brown chicken and white chicken seen facing away from each other early on in the vid, also possibly alluding to poor race relations. 3. That through all of these problems we have entertainment thrusted in our faces to make us forget or not notice the problems around us, hence why for most of the video Gambino and the dancing kids are the main focus white crazy shit happens in the background. I also believe there is a message in there about society not wanting to deal with black people unless they are entertainers, but I haven't fully been able to work that one out. and 4. I feel like the end where Gambino is running from/with the crowd of people either implies that he (as the character in the video) doesn't want to be part of the system and continue entertaining due to either personal reasons or the fact that he doesn't want to keep distracting people from the problems around them or alternatively that he and the other people in the crowd are all running away from a greater danger or evil of society that they no longer wish to deal with.

[@Thimble-berry]

Hank Hill I'm happy to hear someone point out all these additional themes. The mixture of them is what made this song and music video hit me so hard. You did a good job of articulating this. Though, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he running from police officers at the end? It'h hard to make out in the lighting, but it seemed that way to me.

[@chanceussery4090]

Well said.

[@Gingerm0nster]

I actually really like that you reviewed the song later on. It shows whether or not the song has/will stood/stand the test of time

[@li_celly]

This video was recommended to me as of June 2020... boy do we have to tell you something.

[@allanjohnson8951]

As far as social commentary goes, I do think you missed one interpretation that I think would make it more clear as to what he's trying to say-- When he's saying things like "We just want to party" or "I'm so pretty", he's not speaking as a black American, but as America as a whole, ie. from the white perspective. The performance's violent juxtaposition of elements I think makes this pretty clear, with the jim crow dancing not only commenting on a racist history in America, but also painting (ha.) him as a white person being blatantly racist and "just having fun". When he dances his way into the gospel choir scene, he's doing a mockery of typical "white" dancing, having fun next to the culture the white character has nothing to do with, and then shooting them once he gets bored. He then walks casually next to the police car dancing, which is something a black person simply could not do after such a violent event, not with the way America is today.

[@sethpeterson5652]

When is the next Rap Critic collab

[@lukeg1940]

Seth Peterson rap critic is the J.cole of music critics

[@treyspace7806]

Lil PumpthisnamesironicIdontactuallyLikePump Meaning what?

[@troyareyes]

I was honestly wondering if he was gonna pop up in this

[@lukeg1940]

Trey R. Only focuses on lyrics and not things like flow, delivery and production

[@1101Archimedes]

Which is why a collaboration would have been a good idea. Todd's the one who's more interested in flow, delivery, and production. That being said, at time of writing, RC's last review seemed to put more emphasis (or at least weight) on the above.

[@ZenGaijin]

Basically, nobody wants to hear your viewpoint just keep on dancing because "This is America". We pretend to care but only to a point. At some point it all becomes to much and you can't just keep ignoring the negative and gloss over by dancing. The Choir was a direct reference to the Charleston shooting. That being said without the video the song doesn't have the same impact as it would without. The song isn't great but the dialogue it started is important.

[@avosmash2121]

On a separate note, Todd I wanna tip my hat off to you for being the sort of critic who A) openly admits when they know something isn't made probably for them so their views are likely to be incomplete, but still able to offer honest critique anyway, without taking that issue as being part of why its flawed, and B) who can humbly state when they just don't get something, without automatically labelling something as 100% BAD solely for it either, without not taking the OTHER reasons why it may be possibly bad into full consideration too. You really know how to deliver a nuanced analysis beyond just the typical: "I like it and its cool" and "I don't like it and therefore it sucks." You seem far more intelligent in some ways than most critics in the public eye and on national television. I wish more out there had your level of depth and maturity. Yeah, I said it. The guy in a hoody on KZbin videos is a MATURE individual.

[@regisatlas]

oof, I expected more than ''idk what this is'' for this analysis. especially when watching it in 2020. yeah the video is complex, but it's not THAT vague or hard to figure out the message also, the gucci part was completely ironic

[@cmmosher8035]

So... I am a white guy so take this for what it is. I assumed it was about how we use pop culture (the song/music) to insolate ourselves from the true shittiness and violence of real life (the events of the video). I don't think this is meant to be listened to without the visuals.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

Cm Mosher I don't think so. It's meant to be disconcerting and doesn't seem to imply it's isolated.

[@EpicMinecraftFail]

Cm Mosher what does you being white have to do with this? lmao

[@firemarshal2629]

Nothing wrong with being a white dude bro, no need to fill like you're outting yourself.

[@tastybritches6644]

Real Heel Ryan feel*

[@peachy8390]

Cm Mosher I Agree completely actually, this is what I thought when I watched it as well. I’m Asian though, so also not black.

[@astrocrowbeats]

Toddthony in the Shadowstano here

[@gorkaaustin5306]

Crow_ The internets most behind schedual music nerd

[@astrocrowbeats]

Bo Peep love you

[@gorkaaustin5306]

Crow_ Thx bby

[@tomboz777]

Best shadow lighting in the game.™

[@astrocrowbeats]

Bunny in the Box ily

[@buzzardbeatniks]

I think this song has massive replay value, it's been years and I'm still not sick of it, I think most of the Message comes from the video, but the song is just catchy as hell.

[@notanelol7679]

I feel like donald is a Genius but I feel like he’s got just a bit of an ego problem. I’m sorry, I love him, but I just feel that way

[@joedatius]

All artists have an ego problem it just depends how well or how willing they are at hiding it

[@jaspermervin5204]

An ego problem, you could say that, him and Adolf Hitler.

[@arthurrimbaud7287]

“I feel like Donald is a genius...” 😂

[@kerfluffle3781]

I'm sorry, this comment is talking about Donald Glover right? Because it think some of these comments think you're talking about Trump.

[@pikachew6135]

jasper Mervin This was a big ass jump from what this dude was talking about 🗿

[@TheRacePig]

I do feel like you've missed the point a bit, but I don't want to be uncharitable about it like "OMG YOU'RE SO DUMB," or whatever, it's pretty buried. I think the song and the video are explicitly the full piece, it loses its impact as a song when listened to in isolation because the visuals give the music full context. I think the song is extremely about that vague anxiety about the black experience. Firstly we get pretty "black people" music, nice happy lyrics about just having fun and partying, suddenly and violently stopped by a gun with no purpose other than black murder. It reflects the black experience more than anything because the violence that interrupts everyday life is sudden and entirely without purpose. Don't catch you slipping up, because ultimately that death was their fault, right? You moved too suddenly, you reached for a gun by trying to pull up your pants, you didn't comply with directions. It's your fault. There's also the fact that black people are commonly attacked for having a supposedly pointless life of partying and excess, the implication being that death while purposeless, didn't bring about any great loss. It's very darkly (and in a sense, comedically, I think you're absolutely right about that) about placing the black experience in the wider context of society at large. Often we experience black art in isolation, a pretty song here, a cool dance there. Maybe there's some social commentary, but it exists singularly. Coming back to the context thing, I think This Is America is an attempt to place those things in a wider societal context, fun dances and singing as the world burns behind them. Doing a dance about racial equality while images of lynching sit there uncomfortably. I think it's vague precisely because there's nothing that can be done about it, the people that hold the power to change these things are white, the black experience is denied and swatted down like they're having some collective delusion. All someone like Glover can do is point at it and go "this is extremely fucked up" but there's no comforting "well we just need to be positive!" message or any concrete philosophical reasoning because well, there is none.

[@Gekk0e]

at the start you talk about some cases like that one where the guy was pointing a gun out of his window then tried to reach for his waistband where most people carry guns that is not a black thing the fact that the man is black is not the reason he decided to point a rifle at people most cops don't shoot for not obeying orders as resisting peacefully doesn't give the right to lethal force it's mostly what you do while struggling take for example reaching for your waistband where most people carry guns when a cop tells you to keep your hands somewhere ultimately these are just mistakes, not mistakes made because someone is black but mistakes made because human error exists of course most people won't think in the moment a gun is pointed at them that reaching for a common place to hold a weapon might end up in being shot but it happens it's not because black people have some code in their brain that tells them they need to do weird stuff under pressure overall i just feel like there were some mistakes made in our past but instead of calling them mistakes we resort to racism saying that all white people are trash because one black man died for reaching for a weapon why do we have to make things about race when they have nothing to do with race

[@samfeldstein4498]

Can someone please request Todd to do another Worst Hit Songs of xxxx year video?

[@millie8943]

Why don't you?

[@beneales]

xxxx, my favourite year.

[@maxbogensberger3725]

2008

[@musawwirrizvi8409]

“We are living in appalling times” oh that’s cute, just you wait

[@timyetishefsky8981]

Revisiting this with the current state of the country, god damn.

[@andreadamon2197]

Let’s be honest, this song wouldn’t have gotten a quarter as big without the video

[@MP-oj9tk]

I'm pretty sure the video and the song were always conceptualized to be a complete package.

[@Eltrio2]

5:02) According to the internet [his twitter] he's Latino/Asian.

[@SprocketWatchclock]

When I first saw the video for This Is America all I could think of was Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K Dick. It's a novel all about seeding an anti-establishment message in a pop song that on the surface just seems like a mindless party song but leads to a full scale revolution. Looking outside the window now I feel like we're watching life imitate art and this song was the focal point. This is our real-world iteration of "Everybody Join the Party".

[@taylorfrench6722]

This was the first Todd in the Shadows video I saw. I was on the KZbin Home Screen in July 2018 looking through my recommended, saw this video, and thought to myself "whoever has the balls to upload a video on 'This is America' more than 2 months after it came out is probably really interesting." Then I checked out some of his other reviews and all of his year-end lists, and the rest is history.

[@Kat-qe1vk]

I personally read it as being about feeling like you have to put on a show to be successful as a black person in America despite what black people as a whole suffer in this country. However I do believe there are a ton of valid interpretations and in my opinion that's actually one of it's strengths. It can speak to a lot of very different but equally true experiences of what America is. Anyways, great video Todd! Glad to see you months late as usual 😉

[@yankeeyankee5]

Kath Flynn Black people as a whole do not suffer in our country. wtf are you even talking about.

[@Viddaric]

I have no idea why the hell this song gets played on the radio. Literally the entire point of the song is the video, when you listen to it on the radio it just sounds exactly like what it's parodying. Also I don't know why people are jizzing over this song being super deep and shit. Sure, the video has some very very powerful and iconic imagery and is an incredibly impressive work, but let's be real: messages like "American media is superficial" and "The real problems of black America are constantly portrayed badly by both the media and the music industry" are not exactly new concepts. Both of those points have been through the fucking wringer already, and if this is your first exposure to these themes in song, you clearly haven't been looking very hard for similar songs.

[@PrincessNinja007]

Viddaric It's like all those "30 images that reveal deep unsettling truths about society" articles that are just "the internet is bad"

[@TeeJayLars]

Something having been said before is not a valid criticism of a work; Thomas Payne was far from the first or most eloquent person to criticize the government of his time, yet he remains one of the most influential political philosophers of the civilized era. As to why it gets played on the radio, I have two answers for you. 1. It's still a very catchy, very interesting bit of audio, regardless of the existence of its visual component. 2. It getting played without visuals is part of the point - without the video, it plays into the cliches of every other trap-influenced pop song out there to anyone who isn't aware of the subtext (and let's be real, the overly simplistic lyrics and sarcasm in his tone should signal to anyone with any observant faculties at all that there are some underlying messages there). I don't even love the song, man, but saying it doesn't work without visuals or that the point it makes is pointless (ha) doesn't really jive with what I'm seeing.

[@jacobmiller6597]

Idk man I think personally donald is trolling and it surprised him that this song actually gets played This dude made bro rape -.- Anyone that dosent think hes a troll obviously hasnt seen his body of work

[@katc2040]

Viddaric cuz it’s a good song even without the message of the video?

[@littleprincess4615]

Not gonna lie, I’ve never heard the song without something else playing with it. I found out this song existed through a meme. Finding social commentary through a meme. It’s not an inherently bad way to find out about something, but it feels like the punchline of a grand joke that I’m never going get.

[@giselle9230]

2020: I Hope Todd gets it now. Cuz we’re all starting to really fuckin quick

[@grimtheghastly8878]

I love how vapid the lyrics are... Just like America. I think that's the purpose... I think? Funny how this sound is by and for black people but I can't figure it out for the life of me. And I'm black. Tbh I find Todd's interpretation to be comforting in a way.

[@blckotaku5250]

Your looking as more as a song than a video the video is not for the song. The song is for the video

[@baronvonbeandip]

@@blckotaku5250 wtf did I just read

[@SploshBadger]

I think analysing this word for word doesn't work, the way that everyone had 10 minute videos dissecting all the little details was disappointing to me. It's got a vibe, all the small things connect up to provide a vibe. That vibe says more about anything than great lyrics would.

[@muizzsiddique]

Any idea what that vibe may be?

[@SploshBadger]

Oppressive, Dark, but still a little hopeful that what I get from it.

[@renzelkamuro2944]

Big Lover Lol

[@BestGammerEver]

i agree completely

[@TXWatson]

Super late to this here but watching your discussion I noticed something about what the song might be saying that I hadn't thought of before. It occurred to me with the gospel singers, but also works with the guitar player at the opening: the fact that he's the one killing them always felt important to me, in a way that I never really saw in other people's analysis. It's super normal to treat the narrator of a text as being a neutral force with no specific qualities, but this song deeply challenges that, at a time when the larger culture of art and art criticism is increasingly aware that there is no narration that doesn't come from a perspective. When you clipped the gospel singers shot, it became suddenly apparent to me that Gambino shot them not just while they were singing, but while they were explicitly singing encouragement to him for succeeding in the entertainment industry. Once I noticed that, a lot else started to unroll for me. The older Black man playing a worn guitar is playing music that makes Gambino want to start dancing. Then, with the energy given to him by that source of creative inspiration, he shoots the guitarist, while doing a Jim Crow cartoonish pose and wearing the clothes of a faction of traitors who fought to repress and control Black people. Every time I've seen people talk about the symbolism of the pants or the Jim Crow poses, it's always just kind of an acknowledgment. Like they're just symbols thrown into a word salad of signifiers that don't build to a message any more complicated than "Black people get shot in America." But read this way, I think they really clearly represent Gambino as a character who fights against the interests of Black people and for the entertainment of white people. In this reading, it makes a lot of sense that the other stuff he talks about seems kind of incoherent, just a bunch of empty references to the tropes of rap music. He's not condemning rap per se, he's condemning himself in particular for making a product out of the idea of rap as a cultural object. It always struck me as particularly symbolically important that one of the first cartoonish expressions he does in the video is pretty much the "Forest Whitaker eye" expression that Glover performed as Troy in Community when he was teaching Jeff how to be intimidating in a fight. Performing cartoonish Blackness in service of white people. I'm not familiar enough with his whole ouvere to make a judgment on this but I wonder if the whole section where he's dancing up towards the guitarist might consist of moves and poses across his other works, in moments where he was leveraging his Blackness as a comic product? I think we can then unpack the core thesis of the song with a little more complexity. Not "Black people get shot in America," but "In America, the individual creative success of celebrity Black artists is built on exploitation of and violence towards Black people in general, done with the full knowledge that those people love and support the artists and will encourage them in that ongoing pursuit." i.e. "Get that money, Black man." That guitarist is still playing, anonymized with a hood, to support Gambino's dancing at the end of the video. Gambino's obviously talking about his own experience with respect to Black culture, but I think this is his expression of his experience of a phenomenon that a lot of young artists are going through right now: realizing that they were lied to by the artists who made them think they should want this, realizing that this industry isn't creating opportunities to chip away at oppression, and, in fact, is building reinforcements to it, realizing with horror about themselves that as they come to understand this, they aren't stopping. Maybe because they have no other skillset to market. Maybe because being a different kind of artist, one who doesn't do the whole 'persona' thing, risks collapsing a precarious type of career into nothing. Maybe out of a sense of obligation to the past version of themselves that wanted this because they didn't know better. The self-condemnation you end on is, I think, exactly the point I see Glover making here. I think there's a deep thematic connection between "This is America" and another work by a musician and comedian, "Art is dead" by Bo Burnham. They got sold the same story in their childhoods as all of us, that celebrity and fame comes with happiness and power. They found out that wasn't true of their own fame, and that it was never true: the artists throughout history who sold their experience of being artists as something unique, magical, and different were always making it up to make people more excited to hand them money. But, like you pointed out, they both started on KZbin. They have a better understanding than most that what happened to them can happen to anyone, and that there are a lot of vulnerable people out there trying really hard to make it happen to themselves. And they have a better idea than artists have had before just how art can be used to speak directly to the audience about itself in a way that the record label won't notice or worry about. This might just be me seeing my own pet passions in everything, but I'm adding "This is America" to my list of songs by young, talented artists desperately trying to warn the people who look up to them the way they looked up to someone else, that they really shouldn't.

[@TheMusely]

I know this comment is 4 years old by now, but this is such a great analysis.

[@africanlogic757]

Do you understand the song now. gambino is great

[@girlwithaguitar24]

The whole thing I got from this song is how our culture, and Back folks in general can become blind to the pressing social issues to the community (mainly gun violence, police violence, etc.) in lieu of whose got the most money and cars - silly materialism. Gambino with the happy dancing on top of the chaotic background is reflecting this, where he's seemingly ignorant to the world falling apart around him, and at the VERY end realizing "Oh shit, this is happening? Ahhh!"

[@GoldenCycloneGaming]

Disappointed that the video didn’t start off with Todd getting shot in the head

[@chicagoakland]

Wait til you get to the ending...

[@Htds9]

It ended with it though

[@kingnewgameplus6483]

Well then you'll like the end.

[@tomlastname85]

This song just has a really creepy vibe, but not in an obvious way, like the instrumentals have an offsetting vibe by being really random.

[@cyancyborg1477]

You could have waited another two years, and instead of being late, you would have been right on time. Remember Floyd.

[@waterbarron7540]

I don't think this song is saying anything is one way or the other. I think it's merely stating this is America. This is who we are. This is what is going on. It doesnt offer any solution or any opinions really. You can take each point in the video and flip it. It's merely stating this is who America is. You figure it out. You work out what this means to you. You figure out a way to fix this.

[@snowcherryleopard]

Tbh I feel like the majority of the appeal of this song is the video

[@jamespw6206]

Pretty much. I was driving and heard it on the radio, and it just lost its appeal. It was just really unsettling, except there wasn't the visuals for me to be interested in

[@snowcherryleopard]

Yeah I feel like whenever people talk about this song it's always about the video and not about the song itself.

[@nalmada]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that the anxious, unsettling vibe of the song is so strong. I think, without the video, that's what the song delivers on. Lyrically there's not a lot there, but you can still sure hear what the song is saying in just its sound.

[@stromagedon]

The further from this songs release we get the more it feels like it's only relevant as a meme. something crappy happens in the United States (like January the 6th 2021) just play the course of this song not even the whole thing just THIS IS AMERICA over and over again. idk if I okay with that being this song's Legacy seamed bigger when it dropped, still love the song tho.

[@certifiedbootygoon]

Do I Hate Mars Bars

[@SessVlogs]

Hahaha!

[@BerdAndCharleston]

wrong channel XD

[@jabezalynn]

Always a treat when you upload

[@mcmagiccracker]

I love your commentary but I was afraid you were just missing every single point until 13:20 "abstract wave of anxiety" and that's the reason I didn't skip to your next video. I'd love to see you revisit this song in the context of 2020. It made perfect sense to me for this to be a song without an album. There was an era when albums didn't exist and singles were all we got. We also thought the concept of a music video was obsolete but here we are, four grammy awards later.

[@TheRealRevelation]

I might have to subscribe! 4 videos so far and I'm loving it!

[@DiamondAxeStudiosMusic]

I was POSITIVE that your next review was gonna be "I Like It." Oh, well, I'll go make some popcorn.

[@naturellebella]

Diamond Axe Studios Music ooo that would be nice!

[@laviarray]

I completely agree with Todd. I get the mood of the song but I never got what the statement of the song was supposed to be. Like I saw one analysis talk about how the dancing was meant to be a distraction from all of the horror in the background, but nothing goes on in the background besides people running.

[@yoshimasterleader]

a lot went on on the background. It was a riot.

[@remimaloney2028]

Can I say just one thing, @Todd in the Shadows? "I don't know, I feel I'm doing all the work here" --> that's probably why it's such a fantastic thought-provoking video. It forces you to actually think about what it means, it doesn't spoon-feed exactly the answer. It's total lack of subtlety at times just never makes you forget to think about it.

[@venomkratos7358]

Todd I could explain every scene to you but honestly I can't type that much in a youtube comment section. Just know there is an answer for every question you asked in this video.

[@brownjesus9529]

He definitely made/thought of the video before he made the song

[@1101Archimedes]

Glover didn't direct the video, though he did conceive the basis.

[@TheTinyTimmyTimTim]

1101Archimedes it was directed by hiro Murai, who co directs Atlanta with him and all his previous music videos. All of their work is done in conjunction.

[@JohnDee633]

And the song was practically swipped from a lesser known artist. Soooo, you could just say the industry set up this whole scheme and cashed in, and he gets all the glory for it.

[@Nananananaheckyes]

I honestly feel like the vague somewhat hard-to-pin-down-point is kind of intentional? Like, a feeling of wishy-washiness about what exactly America is? it might be left vague for the audience to project their own feelings onto it? Like, having them reflect upon their own feelings about what America is, because America isn't some singular thing that's the same for every American

[@adhdweirdo4314]

this song... came almost too early. in this video your talking about not understanding, and when the song was released, i didn't either. i get it now, oh god i get it now

[@annacibiniak2268]

Dude I’m a the biggest music noob out there but it’s very clear to me that while he’s doing a funny little dance and rapping about his clothes and how he’s so pretty while everything goes on in the background ...? Like, it is very clear to me what he’s trying to say

[@AValveFanboy]

TODD HAS UPLOADED THIS IS NOT A DRILL REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL

[@gorkaaustin5306]

marvelator *REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

[@p.bsandwitch6484]

*Watch it before it gets taken down*

[@charliethompson3761]

This week on “Todd tackles subjects he probably shouldn’t....”

[@ryanmcallen8713]

Yeah, I think he's missed the point by trying to boil the song down into one thing, and when it doesn't fit that one topic he can't understand it's a critique of lots of issues in America right now. It's more than gun violence or what life is like for a black person. He's not sure how to interpret the issues being presented to him when they're being presented in more than something very straightforward.

[@RyanStorey1231]

I dunno, I feel like Todd "gets it" more than he thinks he does.

[@rosiejl2798]

2020 be like "hold my beer"

[@yondie491]

Dude. 2020 is playing "Hold my beer" WITH ITSELF. Dammit 2020, you won. Stop already!

[@victorcobane6644]

I actually really like how open ended it is. Todd was also spot on with how it just hits you emotionally. And in my opinion, an immediate, huge, undeniable emotional vibe mixed with some lyrics and visuals that are open to interpretation and which let you come to your own conclusion can be and often are a recipe for amazing art. The emotional vibe is universal and stops it from feeling hollow, but the open endedness lets you connect on a more individual and personal level and allows it to apply to different things depending on the person and context. I actually really really like approaching art like that.

[@JoshuaFagan]

Pretty sure this hit #1 because the charts count KZbin so highly. That's also why it's fallen off quickly. No one is listening to this song because why would they? This isn't meant to be listened to. It's meant to be experienced. Most people probably watched it one or twice, then moved on. As a song, it's only okay. As a video, however, it kills. So powerful.

[@solesurvivor327]

Anyone who's seen you in a crossover review knows you're not black. No complaint, just felt it was obvious. And I'm on your side, the commentary of this song is a bit too vague for me.

[@dj.mariks]

The song did exactly what it was suppose to do. It got you all to think.

[@cognitivedissonance8406]

EmpererOvansLoL Support human extinction Do the right thing End the human disease

[@swettyspaghtti]

Made me think Glover is an attention seeking idiot

[@nomirrors3552]

Came to relisten to this song, shocked at the replay value.

[@bep8390]

todd is great with his time management i see/s