The song's accompanying music video was directed by filmmakerHiro Murai, a frequent Gambino collaborator.[7][8] "This Is America" became the 31st song todebut at number one on the USBillboard 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. The song won in all four of its nominated categories at the61st Annual Grammy Awards:Record of the Year,Song of the Year,Best Rap/Sung Performance andBest Music Video. This made Gambino the first hip-hop artist to win Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and "This Is America" the first rap song to win these awards.[9]
Glover has stated that the idea for the song "started as a joke," elaborating in a video interview withGQ: "To be completely honest, 'This is America' — that was all we had was that line. It started as aDrake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this s–t sounds kind of hard though. So I was like, let me play with it."[15][16] (As Childish Gambino, Glover had a mostly one-sided feud with Drake that began in 2014; he has since clarified his 'bravado' was just part of the gig and no hate was intended.)[16]
A number of listeners accused Gambino of plagiarism over "This Is America", pointing out the similarities between the song and "American Pharaoh" by Jase Harley.[17][18]CBS News stated, "The tracks have a similar sound, and share similar themes in the lyrics." Harley stated that he felt "This Is America" was influenced by his song. At the time, he did not have an issue with this.[19] However, when Gambino did not acknowledge him at the Grammys, Harley was upset and called Gambino a "house slave".[20][21] Glover's manager, Fam Rothstein, denied any plagiarism.[22]
In the music video, Gambino assumes a stance similar to theJim Crow caricature.
The music video was directed byHiro Murai and released onYouTube simultaneously with Gambino's performance of the song onSaturday Night Live. The video received about 12.9 million views in 24 hours,[23] and has over 900 million views as of April 2024.[24] In an interview with theNew York Times, Murai discussed his upcoming season forAtlanta, a show created by and starring Glover. He stated: "There's sort of a world-weariness in both this season and the music video. They're both reactions to what's happening in the world."[25]
The video contains many scenes involving violence. It starts off with a shirtless Gambino dancing through a warehouse, interacting with a series of chaotic scenes. According to Murai, the video was inspired by the filmsMother! andCity of God. Prettyman states "The video tests us, taunting us to keep pace as we try to decode every gesture and calculation".[26] Choreographed bySherrie Silver, Gambino and his entourage of young dancers perform several viral dance moves including theSouth AfricanGwara gwara and "Shoot" popularized byBlocBoy 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 ahandgun, while assuming a comical stance similar to aJim 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. This first shooting also marks a transition in the music, from an African "folk-inspired melody" to "dark, pulsingtrap".[27] At a later point, Childish Gambino uses aKalashnikov patternedautomatic weapon to gun down a church choir.
Childish Gambino shooting a church choir in the music video, which is largely inspired by the 2015Charleston church shooting, received general controversy by the media.
In both scenes a child appears from off-screen holding a red cloth, on which Gambino gently lays the weapon used, while the bodies are simply dragged away. A group of children in school uniforms joins Gambino in dancing, only to panic and scatter when the music imitates the sound of gunfire and Gambino positions his arms as if firing a gun, after which he lights a joint. Other schoolchildren are seen on a catwalk above, using their cell phones to record the chaos happening in the video as Gambino sings the lyrics "This acelly / That's a tool". Martha Tesema, writer for websiteMashable, stated that "cell phones have been used as tools to broadcast police shooting, rioting against, or choking black people in this country". The word "celly" might also be a reference to a prison cell, making the line a reference to the disproportionate incarceration of black Americans.[original research?] 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. American singerSZA makes acameo 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.
The music video received widespread critical acclaim. Spencer Kornhaber ofThe Atlantic described the initial reaction onTwitter as "a gushing river of well-deserved praise" and the video as "the most talked-about music video of recent memory."[8] Daniel Kreps ofRolling Stone commented that the video "is a surreal, visceral statement about gun violence in America".[29]Pitchfork awarded the song the distinction of "Best New Track".[14]Billboard critics ranked it 10th among the "greatest music videos of the 21st century."[30] Mahita Gajanan ofTime quoted music history professor Guthrie Ramsey at the University of Pennsylvania:
He's talking about the contradictions of trying to get money, the idea of being a black man in America. It comes out of two different sound worlds. Part of the brilliance of the presentation is that you go from this happymajor mode of choral singing that we associate with South African choral singing, and then after the first gunshot it moves right into the trap sound.[31]
On May 5, 2018, Glover hosted the nineteenth episode ofthe 43rd season ofSaturday Night Live. Childish Gambino was the musical guest in the same episode, and Glover performed two songs as his alter ego, the second of which was "This Is America".Daniel Kaluuya, best known as the star of the filmGet Out (which the music video reportedly references), introduced the song's performance.[35][36]
Cover versions, adaptations, and in popular culture
Several artists attracted attention and millions of views for creating covers of the song and music video with altered lyrics and themes, retaining the song's instrumental and the general structure of its music videos.[37][38]
Bay Area rapperLil B featured a remix of his own on hisOptions mixtape titled "This Is the BasedGod" in October 2018.[39][40][41]
"This Is America" debuted at number one on the USBillboard Hot 100, becoming the 31st song to do so in the chart's history. It debuted with 78,000 downloads sold and 65.3 million US streams in the first week. Its music video accounted for 68% of the song's streaming total. "This Is America" is also Gambino's first top 10; he previously reached number 12 in August 2017 with "Redbone". "This Is America" overtookDrake's "Nice for What" from the top position for two weeks. Gambino is also the secondEmmy Award-winning actor to reach number one on the Hot 100, the first beingJustin Timberlake, who topped the chart with "Can't Stop the Feeling!" in 2016.[54] It topped the Hot 100 for two weeks, and left the top ten after five weeks.
^Jenkins, Craig (May 17, 2018)."The Internet Has Already Devoured 'This Is America'".Vulture. RetrievedMay 20, 2018.The same night he dropped off the video for "This Is America," a combination trap and afrobeat banger with a beguiling message about race and gun violence.
^Prettyman, Michele (2020). "The Persistence of 'Wild Style': Hip-Hop and Music Video Culture at the Intersection of Performance and Provocation".Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.59 (2):151–157.doi:10.1353/cj.2020.0008.ISSN2578-4919.S2CID214502969.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 21. týden 2018 in the date selector. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 20. týden 2018 in the date selector. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
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