This past weekend, Donald Glover, star of the hit show Atlanta, hosted Saturday Night Live to glowing reviews. And while Glover brought the funny to his monologue (which mocked having auditioned twice for SNL and being rejected despite his multi-faceted artistic ability) and the sketches he was in (his dour, Barbie-assigned Mattel intern was priceless) it was his musical alter ego who was the talk of not just the town but the internets as well.
Introduced by Zoe Kravitz, the musical persona known as Childish Gambino—who signed a record deal earlier this year, despite Glover publicly stating his desire to retire from music last summer—debuted a new song titled “Saturday”, an intoxicatingly catchy slice of breezy, vintage ‘70s soul with a tropical flavor. But despite its groovy yumminess it was overshadowed by 'Bino's other new track.
“This Is America” and its attendant video clip in particular—released after his SNL performance, it got somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million views over the weekend—is one hell of an artistic statement. An engaging hip-hop/R&B hybrid, its video is pregnant with symbolism: people gleefully dancing and being all-out consumers while engulfed by chaos; gun violence in which the weapons are treated with more care than the victims; Death riding a pale white horse (from the biblical book of Revelations); and spectators capturing it all on their cellphones.
Many have questioned the absence of musical statements in the midst of our current state of political turmoil; bemoaning a lack of the defiant commentary traditionally the province of our artists. At a time when they are seemingly more preoccupied with shilling for their own clothing lines and fragrances and, after a week in which an immensely popular hip hop artist like Kanye West made a blatant, ignorant fool of himself in a spectacular manner, Gambino has reminded us all what it is to be a talented, socially conscious artist and what they can do in that regard when so inclined.
Tremendous.
