Childish Gambino’s “This is America” has found a way to create a dialogue that Kanye was not able to replicate, and Kanye may end up seeing the harsh realities of what it’s like to be a modern contrarian in today’s politically divisive society.
Kanye West, Childish Gambino and the Art of Creating a Dialogue
By: DJ Lopes
This article was originally going to be solely about Kanye West. West, a fantastic yet complicated artist, returned to Twitter with a rant about free thought and promotion for a whole five new albums, all of which are being produced by West himself. What that rant soon turned into, however, was an endorsement of alt-right political thinker Candace Owens and later, President Donald Trump.
Now, inherently, what West said wasn’t what was so damning. The beauty of our country is the idea of free speech and thought. However, free speech and thought come at the price of the inevitable backlash that will come with a controversial opinion. West lost nearly 100,000 Twitter followers in the process and lost even more fans. It’s worth noting that Kanye is no stranger to controversy; it’s integrally part of who he is as a person. However, in a world where people are increasingly less afraid to draw a line in the sand with their idols, it is tough to imagine that this most recent controversy will prove to be positive press for his upcoming projects.
I say all of that to say this: whether West wanted to or not, he created a dialogue, one that was politically charged and continued an already strong divide in the political stratosphere. Another artist who has created a dialogue very recently is Childish Gambino, or Donald Glover, for those who know him from his acting career. On May 6th, he released a new song and video, aptly titled “This is America” to rave reviews. Much like West, this video created a conversation that still exists today. So, the question must be brought up: Why is Gambino’s dialogue more respected than West’s, despite being about similar topics?
There is one simple answer and multiple more nuanced answers. The obvious one is the position being taken in the dialogue. West took the side of the conservatives, which is a one-way ticket to being labeled the “bad guy” in modern-day liberal media. Gambino’s video resonated with the liberal crowd, with its anti-gun sentiment prevalent use of satire.
The nuance starts with the vehicle each artist to drive their message. West used Twitter- an important, yet lazy way of sending out a message. It takes little effort to send out a tweet, and not much of a filter is needed (look no further than our President for an example). You can accidentally send out a tweet, something you can’t do with a music video. Music videos involve production, a number of days for shooting and editing, and require a group of like-minded people working in unison to make a product worth presenting to the public. Something that takes that much effort typically generates a better conversation than a series of tweets made during a stream-of-consciousness.
Second, the actual product itself was well made. Kanye released a song within the time of his tweets, “Lift Yourself”. However, the song, backed by the sample of the 1973 song “Liberty” by Amnesty, featured little to no valuable lyrical content. Much of West’s part was dedicated to finding different ways to rhyme the phrase “Woopdity scoopty poop”. Gambino’s song, needless to say, was much better thought out. The song ranges through many topics that plague our society, from police brutality to gun control, to how social media has controlled our perception of not only how we think of ourselves, but how we view the world. That combined with a driving beat that fluctuates from a flowery, flowing guitar riff combined with soft vocals to a hard, driving distorted bass tone that demonstrates the highs and lows of our society. The amount of effort put into the whole experience, both sonically and visually, allows a conversation to be better thought out than any tweet or “whoopdity scoop”
On a final note, “This is America” is very short and self-contained, yet filled with statements on society. The video runs a little over 4 minutes long, and while it deserves multiple watches to catch everything in the video, enough can be gathered through one viewing to create a well thought out opinion. On the other hand, the Kanye rant lasted roughly a week or so, which is years in internet-time. There comes a point where everything becomes overkill, and interest is lost. “This is America” hasn’t reached the point of overkill yet, as the video is so dense and filled with tiny nods to the Bible and history and society that a person can watch the video multiple times a day and still find a way to find new things.
At the end of the day, Childish Gambino’s “This is America” has found a way to create a dialogue that Kanye was not able to replicate, and Kanye may end up seeing the harsh realities of what it’s like to be a modern contrarian in today’s politically divisive society.
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