New York – The shock video of rapper Childish Gambino, who questions American society about its relationship to racism, weapons, violence and consumption, crossed the 100 million views threshold on Sunday, just over seven days after it was uploaded.
Only four music videos reached this symbolic bar in less time: Gentleman from South Korean singer Psy (3 days), Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift (3 days), Hello Adele (4 days) and Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus (6).
Shot in a giant hangar, the video of This is America (This is America) has become a social phenomenon, endlessly commented on on social networks.
With its cryptic lyrics and multiple references, the 4-minute message film is the subject of a thousand interpretations by Internet users who seek to decode the smallest details.
The video features Donald Glover, the real name of Childish Gambino, who connects at a disheveled pace the paintings sometimes joyful, sometimes violent, with an underlying permanent tension.
We see him there execute with a bullet behind the head a hooded man, shackled and seated, and, later, kill with a burst of Kalashnikov the ten members of a gospel choir.
In an interview with Fox reporter Chris Van Vliet during the promotion of the film Solo : A Star Wars Story, in which he plays Lando Calrissian, Donald Glover refused to decipher the content of his video.
“I think it’s not my role to do that”, explained in an interview posted online Friday, this multi-media creator who is at the same time rapper, musician, actor, screenwriter and producer. “I don’t want to give it any context. “
“We’re not as cerebral as people think,” Ibra Ake, one of the producers of the video, said in an interview with NPR public radio. The team “knows the feeling it wants to give”, but without always knowing how to explain it, he said.
Internet users saw in the film a denunciation of gun violence, others a criticism of the American penal system and police abuses, or even a satire of the hyper consumption of American society, but also historical reminders to slavery, segregation and racism.
“Our goal is to normalize being black,” Ibra Ake summed up.
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