English Quotes - This is America

Title, Director, Year

This is America (Murai, 2018)

I got the plug in Oaxaca (Woah) //
They gonna find you like "blocka" (Blaow)

• Glover, raised middle-class and a NYU graduate, bragging about his Mexican drug supplier and threatening to have you gunned down

• Tribute to the cultural dominance of trap music and a reflection on the social logic that made the environment from which trap emerges, the logic where money makes the man, and every black man is a criminal.

The "Trap": Refers to the physical neighborhoods and houses where street-level drug trade took place, symbolizing a cycle of poverty and crime that felt inescapable

"This is America, don't catch you slipping now”

• can’t let your guard down in America

• highlight gun violence

• highlight constant danger

“Look how I’m livin’ now. // Police be trippin’ now”

• reference to police brutality

• racist officer may find it hard to swallow that a black man (such as CG) is reaching high levels of success and fame when they hold prejudices towards people of his race.

• African-American males aged 15 to 34 were considered nine times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than any other demographic.

Group of 10 people shot in a scene alluding to the Charleston church shooting

• white supremacist did the shooting

• 23

• neo-nazi

• 2015

• Dylann Roof

1. It is a criticism of the black church for focusing on materialism ("get your money, Black man") while the community is being ravaged.

2. It is a criticism of America for not valuing black lives, even when those lives are innocent and righteous, as represented by their participation in the church choir.

"this is a celly // that's a tool"

• Stephen Clark getting shot in his backyard, thought cellphone was a gun/’tool’

• in video pans to young people that have cellphones in hand, may represent how cellphones are our only tool against systemic violence

• warehouse music video is in is eerily similar to a prison, may be referencing how prison cells are a tool to imprison black pipo

"Guns in my area // I got the strap, // I gotta carry 'em"

• strap = handgun/pistol

• glorification of gun violence and the reality of self-defense

• Gun violence and guns in general are huge topics in rap and hip-hop, which creates a false illusion associated with African Americans and guns.

• since the guns are heavily distributed in the hood, it’s a dire essential to own one in order to survive.

• theme of self protection with guns acts as a segue to the bigger picture of civilian self defense against excessive police force.

"Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy"

• Many people in impoverished areas aim to ‘escape the hood’ and in turn get high valued material items

• despite how wealthy african american pipo like gambino himself can afford those ‘expensive foreigns’, many black pipo in america aren’t so lucky, which is why in video a bunch of ‘run of the mill’ vehicles are shown littered around the background.

• allude to ‘driving whilst black’. Traffic-stop violence.

"You just a black man in this world // you just a barcode"

• america profits off of black pipo

• media profits off of hate crime stories

"You just a big dawg, yeah // I kenneled him in the backyard"

• Young Thug’s pronunciation of “kenneled” is phonetically close to “killed,”

• Thugger is making a comparison between a dog and an African-American in the United States. A kennel constrains dogs, akin to how a human may be imprisoned. “You just a big dawg” suggests that even successful artists are still beholden to their respective industries.

“Hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands (Hunnid bands) // Contraband, contraband, contraband (Contraband)”

Also, the cadence of these bars resembles the song “Contraband” by Migos, as well as Lil Pump’s infectious “Gucci Gang” chorus. This could be a reference to the popular, but often-maligned, wave of young rappers that Pump seems to represent.

"Get your — black man,"

refrain after verse 1

• reference to slavery, omission of ‘money’

“Yeah, yeah, I'm so cold like, yeah (Yeah) // I'm so dope like, yeah (Woo) // We gon' blow like, yeah (Straight up, uh)”

The terms “cold” and “dope” may portray apathy and a lack of emotion in a chaotic atmosphere as a desirable trait–Bino exhibits this in the music video by showing insensitivity to killing and the violence around him.

“I'm so fitted // I'm on Gucci // I'm so pretty // I'm gon' get it”

• Gambino mimics people who are easily distracted from social issues by material items and social status.

• Dance moves distracting them from what was really happening in the video, which is the point Gambino wants to get across—people are more concerned with the latest dance fad than social issues like systemic racism and gun violence.

1st Shot

• gambino shoots in a pose eerily reminiscent of the jim crow caricature

• gun carried away gently in red cloth whereas the body is dragged along the floor

Gambino in foreground, chaos in background

Oppression and racism are rife in our own worlds, yet we ignore it and remain entertained and distracted by pop culture and social media. This could be the world’s coping mechanism or a complete dismissal.

Gambino Represents:

AMERICA

Glover is self-assured and brash. He kills multiple people (including the choir) and afterward continues to dance and mug for the camera, seemingly without a care in the world.

Perspectives

• lyrics construct first-hand perspective of Black Americans, conveying what it’s like to be black and live in america.

Voice

• The voice of lived Black experience (direct, warning, first-person)

• A satirical/ironic voice mocking distraction culture

• A critical voice interrogating American institutions (guns, police)

• A commodifying/exploitative voice (Black identity as product)

Hooded Figure on white horse

• allusion to biblical symbol: hooded figure = death from book of revelation

• police car follows close behind horse, linking state sanctioned violence or systemic destruction to death