Poignant Message from Gambino – – Impressive
Written by Andre on May 10, 2018
The song itself has scored over 20 million U.S. streams and sold over 50,000 downloads since Saturday.
Last glance over 70 million – it is a must watch piece of art
“…a shocking and brilliantly produced video for the song that’s left fans and music critics scratching their heads for days.”
“What Gambino put together is a true picture of America, where so many of us get to dance and sing and laugh and create. All the while others are largely ignored and trapped in the background, struggling and sometimes dying in a sea of ugliness that many of us would rather not acknowledge, knowing it would ruin the pretty pictures we’d rather focus on.”
“…Glover’s Gambino persona released the video for ‘This is America’ — and all hell broke loose online. …A wildly innovative work that rewards repeated views and commands attention, the Hiro Murai-directed video both honors and upends the traditional music video structure.”
“Childish Gambino returns with the jarring and incredible ‘This Is America,’ a whiplash of a song that jolts from celebratory to terrifying, repeatedly — a lot like the news, I guess.”
*** FADER’s “10 songs you need in your life this week”**
“It’s called ‘This Is America,’ and it is, strictly speaking, one of the best films of 2018 to date — four minutes and four seconds of incendiary historio-cultural mind-messing that appears built to function as a closed conversation for black America and an open classroom for anyone else. …The response to this dead-serious work of satire has been exactly what it should be, confused and conversational, struggling toward clarity.”
“It’s the kind of video that gets better each time you press play, as new layers and cultural references reveal themselves.”
“Watch it once, and your eyes will naturally be drawn to his movements and facial expressions. Watch it again, but focus on the chaos reigning in the background. Watch it a third time, and the reason for this juxtaposition becomes increasingly clear.”
“Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ is divisive, explosive, and embodies reality.”
“’This Is America’ is dense with allusions to American history and pop culture.”
“The powerful song has made many jaws drop and people have been talking about it nonstop since Gambino’s performance on ‘SNL.’”
“May is far too early to be crowning a music video of the year, but ‘This Is America’ absolutely warrants that kind of talk.”
“Containing several metaphors, hints and reflections on the state of our current culture, such as the guns used in the video being handled with care, whereas the people aren’t being treated at all, the video is striking and leaves the viewers thinking.”
“Built on the sharp contrast between jolly, syncretic melodies and menacing trap cadences, the song presents Childish Gambino as confident and cutting.”
***BEST NEW TRACK***
“’This Is America’ is, all at once, protest, satire, and high art. …It’s challenging as great art should be — it invites both commentary and debate, and it has a lot to say about culture, society, art, politics, current events, but refuses to provide easy answers for any of the problems it evokes.”
“Donald Glover’s video may be trying to say something or just start a conversation, but whether through accident or design, it’s something that it seems we desperately needed, just at the time we needed it most. In all its contradictions and cavorting, it lives up to its title — this is, indeed, America.”
“It encapsulates police brutality, mass shootings, racial politics, and the media’s role in all of this–all soundtracked by a stone cold jam.”
“He’s not holding back. …the song is resonating with people all around the country.”
