This Is America Analysis

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“I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now f**king pay me” (Killing Them Softly 2012). The song and video for This is America has a lot to analyze so the visuals and lyrics are going to be split into two different parts. Donald Glover's video opens in an empty warehouse. A black man walks up, sits down, and begins to play the guitar. The camera slowly pans to Glover who begins dancing. The man who was playing the guitar is now wearing a bag over his head. Glover pulls a gun out and shoots the black man. All of the facial expressions and poses Glover makes are very similar to old Jim Crow photos and portrayals, but Glover is also playing the role of america in this video. This …show more content…

However the lyrics combat the beat with aggressive and cold versus creating this juxtaposition. Young Thug, Slim Jxmmi, Quavo, 21 SAvage, BlocBoy Jb and Kodak Black all have ad libs throughout the song. This is Glover bringing together his fellow black men showing unity between them. After Glover kills people he says that “This is America” saying that this is just how things go here. People die in the streets and no one cares. “Look at how I'm livin' now/ Police be trippin' now (woo)/ Yeah, this is America (woo, ayy)/ Guns in my area (word, my area)/ I got the strap (ayy, ayy)” (This is America 2018). Young black males have been killed by police more and more throughout the past years. Police kill these men for what seems like no good reason, they are trippin’. Gun stores and guns in black neighborhoods have been a problem for a while and even though it is a problem Glover embraces the gun, carrying it around with him. Glover’s grandma encourages him to get money and he has but later on he speaks about Gucci belts, showing he spends his money on meaningless things. “I got the plug in Oaxaca (woah)/ They gonna find you like blocka (blaow)” (This is America 2018). Glover graduated from NYU and now is successful as a writer, actor, comedian, and singer/rapper. Saying that he has a plug in Mexico and assassins who will kill you is him poking fun at the trap rappers who claim they do the same things despite not doing said things. “America, I just checked my following list, and—/You gon' tell somebody/—you mothaf*ckas owe me” (This is America 2018). This is part of the song where Young Thug complains about not having enough followers. Young Thug has 8 million followers. “You just a black man in this world/ You just a barcode, ayy/ You just a black man in this world/ Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy” (This is America 2018). Again this is Young Thug rapping and he’s

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