Oh

Gambino oh my god oh yes this is America childish gambino

yeah dude hang on I'm gonna turn it up I love this song so much oh my god my

cousin Maeby reacted is he's such an amazing artist I actually haven't seen

the video like I just saw some stuff on Twitter what starts off super like super

nice and then it gets super intense

there's so much symbolism in this music video

he's killed this girl is so nasty that was shocking cuz like that's when he

immediately knew is taking a turn that gun was being dragged off very gently

well this dead body is just being dragged off without a care his demos are

really good too I loved his performance in this oh my god there's so much chaos

hey Wilson this is e my boy well oh my gosh it's so weird to be crazy coming

into the audition process they were just like oh we just have a huge artist this

this will be one of his last songs it's gonna be great they played the song and

rehearsal we were like trying to guess who was this and then he walked in he

kind of told us like even though the song is aggressive we have to be the one

to be the happiness symbolizing that pop culture is kind of like it takes the

center stage of public consciousness where when there's all this like

violence happening in the background and no one's noticing it because everyone's

just dancing and partying away

well there's so much going on at once there's so much going on I every time I

watch it I catch a new thing

oh that part made my heart sink the most that was like I like the gun shoot at

the beginning that one was shocking but that one got me the most cuz I feel like

I was almost tied to like Charleston to where it was just like heart wrenching

it's the light goosebumps my arm to see this like I saw

it live but to see it all come together it's still giving me goosebumps I'm

pretty sure it's gonna impact everybody's lives and make them think

it's really cynical at the same time it was just so much chaos going on around

us or it was just like you have to stay focused and just focus on the dance you

just be happy the whole time this part this part gave me chills when I watch it

for the first time everything about this it's like blinking you miss it

I'm pretty sure that's isn't it says I love her too just like it's genius this

is beautiful cinematography I really really liked all the shots that they've

been doing you could just see the fear in his face oh my God look at that whoa

gives me chills this music video the song is everything about it is beautiful

I see what you mean is doing where it's like talking about pop culture but then

also bringing in that seriousness of this is America and it's so just

artistically cool but also just heart-wrenching to watch so we know that

you're not a college kid but since you were actually in part of the video we

wanted to bring you in to give us further insight thank you when they

first you know showed us the set and they were like okay let's start shooting

it and we were like okay let's see how this looks and then we look in to like

the TV screen and we're looking a playback we're like wow like it's gonna

blow everybody's mind so that was the music video for this is America the

newest single by rapper childish gambino obviously you've seen this before yeah I

mean who has it so many people are pointing out that there is an

overwhelming amount of cultural allusions and symbolism found in the

video although we can't show you everything because the scenes are still

being dissected we're gonna show you some of the most talked about moments

and get your thoughts on them okay cool cuz he I know I like already as soon as

this music video dropped everyone on Twitter was just giving their own

analysis so here's the first one oh yeah yeah the whole Jim Crow thing is

I mean just a Twitter you know Twitter's an encyclopedia for everything these

days I heard that he was he was like modeling after a painting but I didn't

know like what it was for him to subtly drop that in there unless you knew about

it unless he really went digging for it you wouldn't have known so several

reports have noted that the video seems to tackle various social issues

including police brutality gun violence all while dancing in a Jim Crow style

caricature a type of anti-black imagery that was meant for entertainment in the

19th and 20th century why do you think that can be no decided to include this

in his video because as much as we want to say that things have changed a lot of

things happened he's trying to bring to the

forefront that all these issues that happen in the past haven't really been

solved yet because we're really as a country we're really distracted Jim Crow

especially like that whole image of him was supposed to bring down black people

so the fact that like Gambino himself as a black man is sort of like taking that

himself and doing it himself is kind of showing like I'm taking ownership of

this now so you can't hurt me with it anymore a lot of people probably don't

even know about this stuff and it's like for an artist to use their medium to

educate somebody while also entertaining them it's pretty needed yeah they just

threw someone off the off the balcony I just see like people being chased by

police go ahead and watch it again okay oh my god I did not notice that I was

just so distracted by the dancing when you were watching the dancing it makes

you not realize what's going on in the background then we talked about news

outlets or like even like different types of media it's like they try and

distract you with one story to lead you away from another story so I pointed out

that it could also reflect the notion that our society lusts to emulate and be

entertained by black entertainers yet ignore the hardships african-americans

face in this country yeah he's almost kind of saying like we only love black

people when they're like giving us something like fun and cool but then

we're ignoring them when they have issues that they're facing themselves I

feel a hundred percent of like movement everything like my legs matter and it's

so important but it's not only affecting like that because you see it also with

the Latino culture and you see it with like every single other culture

yeah by now this I know you're gonna talk about this part because his lines

it goes it's a seller which is being cellphone

and they says yeah that's a tool the moment something happens we have to

report right away instead of helping like if there's two people fighting we

never people don't help they were courting a lot of people tend to like

when they when they see something wrong instead of like trying to intervene they

just kind of just videotape it and just stay on the side well Sally I think

could maybe have it's like a double entendre where it's a cell phone but

also like a prism cell so you know there's a lot of police brutality that's

been brought to the surface because people have filmed it videotaping police

brutality is the only way to combat it because you know Anna your word versus

their word situation you're never gonna win why a white horn dude that's one of

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for sure

it's weird I thought the horse would freak out because of all the chaos and

the fire and everything but the horse was very professional so in this scene

we see a hooded figure riding a horse followed by a cop car which a lot of

people believe is an allusion to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse

interesting there's just so many people dying and no one cares and no one's

really trying to do anything and that's like the country that we live in yeah I

think alike especially with the church one with all the gospel singers like

that reminded me of the shooting that happened in the south and in the church

after every shooting it's a red car cloth what you're saying that the guns

are more more important than the humans and the red is supposed to represent the

blood on set they were just like oh by the way one of the kids is gonna hold a

real gun if you guys don't mind the parents were like hey a real gun is it

loaded and they're like no no no it's not loaded but he's gonna have to put in

his hands and then just give it away right away it just made me feel like

there are a lot of people in power who would rather protect guns than protect

people's lives this one was to is kind of showing how like black bodies aren't

treated like fairly or gently or anything like that at all like people

don't care about them enough but God forbid you take away my gun topic about

guns are so complicated I'm just scared about giving the whole power to a

government and you being unable to defend yourself at at the same time if

there's no like regulation for it that's freaking scary now that the video has

been released what are your feelings towards how the video has been received

by critics in the general public I felt like this was just another video to

spread awareness and he portrayed it perfectly so as you've seen the video

has a lot going on in some point the videos worth multiple viewings

because you don't really catch everything the first time you watch it

100% I've seen it four times that I still don't catch everything the song

itself shifts throughout going from happy upbeat verses to that dark and

aggressive chorus we broke down some of the most important parts of the video

for you what form the video stood out to you the most I think the most jarring

part of it honestly it was like the gun handling and shooting I think the first

scene is what caught my eye the most cuz I like I saw people like tweeting about

it a ton and then you watch it and you don't really know what's gonna happen

and then he shoots the guy and then it just mayhem occurs what's standing out

the most is that like especially the ending we're trying to like get away

from these problems what we're living in them still and we can't get out the most

important part from you was just the overall symbolism of how of how the guns

were being treated with more respect than actual human beings lives because I

feel like it's very relevant and with especially with like all these gun

control problems and all these shootings that have been happening lately there's

this hope yet there's this cynicism I like the juxtaposition between the the

children and teens who are dancing while there is so much violence happening in

the background so you've been involved in a lot of music videos and other

exciting opportunities throughout your career but how does it feel to be a part

of something that's causing several important conversations in our society

the video dropped around Saturday night and I went on my phone right away and

people already texting me and were like are you in this video was that you I'm

happy that I was able to be a part of something that everybody's talking about

in a in a great way none of us knew that the group us have

guns none of us knew about the choir being shot or anything but Childish ever

or Donald or mr. Glover he came up to us and he was like you guys whenever you

guys feel uncomfortable just tell me and let me know and I'll stop it and we

could take a step back take a break come up to me or the director and I'll take

care of you guys like that was one thing I respect this man 100% and I'm it's so

overwhelming to be in this man's vision for his video and I felt like this was

so creative while you were filming did you think he was gonna have this big

I okay I did all the parents they were just kind of like like what's going on

there's so much chaos and I was like trust me I trust mr. Bluebird I trust

hero I just a director and you know I trust a choreographer and I was like you

know what they're going for this 100% I am too and I was like this is gonna take

over the world when these types of videos are released that depicts some

issues within this country and focus on racial undertones they almost always

cause divisions between people as both left and right can get very vocal over

their opposing viewpoints do you think that this type of reaction and

conversation is good or bad to come from a music video I think it's amazing that

you can have such a music video or they could have a music video that's so

profound that it causes this kind of political reaction this video generates

valuable discussion things can change but nothing's gonna happen unless people

talk about it I already know millions of people have already watched this video

today and I feel like that's you know it needs to be talked about and it needs it

needs to be shown like everyone needs to see this kind of stuff and realize like

what's actually happening people pay attention to pop culture and

entertainment and that's exactly what Gambino is trying to get across

even though race is such a like a politically charged issue it's still

gonna start conversations between people to hopefully open each other's eyes kind

of thing and understand each other's perspectives more if we can't talk about

these things and like normal conversations and we have to have like

deaths happen and stuff like this happened before we actually talk about

it and really sit there and have the conversation then it's like what are we

ever gonna really acknowledge these things so finally the music video is

making a lot of people think critically about the issues presented which some

people think is what good art should do why do you think that we sometimes need

aren't like this to dig deeper into our lives versus being able to see it within

ourselves that's exactly what art is supposed to do is to make you think it

may let you view issues in another way that maybe you're not able to see just

through things that you see on the news it's necessary to have art like this

it's necessary to make music videos like that to reach out to people because it

creates a shock in their minds it's not really one of those things that a lot of

people enjoy but it's one of those things that a lot of people need because

like okay well that's such a tragedy this is happening a sec no this is like

systemic this is things that have been going on

for years and years and years art is more effective than arguing with someone

I feel like when someone sees a work of art and they really feel the message

that's more impactful than someone saying hey this is what I believe and

this is what I think you should do

you