A hard hitting melodic verse introduces Childish Gambino in multitudes; the harmonious intro is a benign affirmation. But the repetition connotes denial and the desire to will a situation away,

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away

“Go, go away,” renders the harmlessness of “yeah,” into a dismissal. He continues in the same high pitched style,

We just wanna party

Party just for you

We just want the money

Money just for you

I know you wanna party

Party just for me

Girl, you got me dancin’ (yeah, girl, you got me dancin’)

Dance and shake the frame

We just wanna party (yeah)

Party just for you (yeah)

We just want the money (yeah)

Money just for you (you)

I know you wanna party (yeah)

Party just for me (yeah)

Girl, you got me dancin’ (yeah, girl, you got me dancin’)

Dance and shake the frame (you)

All we want to do, all we really want, is a good time. We want to party, dance, shake, and earn money. This is a dismissal of reality. But in this section who are the “we,” and who are the “you”? The “we” are a collective; the dancers, the money-makers, the performers and in Gambino’s case, the Black entertainment industry who make “money just for you”. This dichotomy being outlined is pointing out a disparity between performers and those that profit. This look at the hierarchy of success puts emphasis on who is on top especially important in an industry that continues to be dominated by white and primarily male media moguls.

It is a reference to our current socioeconomic and racial climate, an America that incarcerates African Americans at “more than five times the rate of whites,” according to the NAACP. This request for willful ignorance is then a desire to ignore this. When merged with the video we see Gambino and his dancers at the center performing to the song in congruence, while their surroundings are far from harmonious. The peripheries are imitative of neighborhoods; people dart back and forth, police are in pursuit, all punctuated by screams, guns, apathy, and fear. The core of this sentiment is captured in the main verse where there is an obvious tonal change,

This is America

Don’t catch you slippin’ up

Don’t catch you slippin’ up

Look what I’m whippin’ up

This is America (woo)

Don’t catch you slippin’ up

Don’t catch you slippin’ up

Look what I’m whippin’ up

He accentuates African American subjection to disparate occasions of targeted violence. Occasions of this in the U.S. have been on the rise, in the music video there is reference to the Emmanuel AME Church shooting, the presence of guns, children, cop cars, chases, and individuals who witness it passively. It brings to mind the protests and outrage at the shooting of countless African American children; from Trayvon Martin, whose death is attributed with jump starting the Black Lives Matter Movement, to Tamir Rice, included in this comprehensive list by USA Today that enumerates the countless cases of profiling that have lead to the death of innocents. It critiques gun violence by throwing it back in your face in a fearless demonstration.

All of this occurs while others of the same collective enjoy blissful success, not at the expense, but in the same space of existence. He points out the horrid juxtaposition; while these performers dance, people die, and he warns “Don’t catch you slippin’ up,” as in don’t drop the façade that propels you to this success, success that banks on continued silence and inaction. The celebration amidst destruction is especially jarring, begging for a second look at what is occurring around you, begging you to feel the outrage and horror that befits it.

“Look what I’m whippin’ up,” is a provocative double entendre, a whip, a ride of luxury and glamour can also be understood as a reference to enslavement, to a control served in present times though via a different format in the offer of economic success. So you play to that, you keep up this appearance, this dance, to be successful and continue to be adulated by the masses.

“Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody

You go tell somebody

Grandma told me

Get your money, Black man (get your money)

Get your money, Black man (get your money)

Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)

Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)

Black man

Here Gambino makes a statement about the common resent of the lack reparations from years of oppressive disadvantage in this country, a sentiment that has been touted to him by his family. That “40 acres and a mule apiece,” was a promise never fulfilled that is still perturbing to this day. With that in mind it serves to address the collective Black community and says: you have to get what was taken from you. He revamps this in a way that suggests a complicity in return for some economic gain. While the lyrics come off as superficial and empty, the repetition makes you ponder how this pay controls you, how it plays out in this current climate. The economic payment is a silencer that shuts down indignation, that takes a performer’s power possessed in their platform, because those that sign their checks and ensure their success prefer it this way. I would say he is prompting for redefinition, a call to claim due freedom, culture, and home instead. Nonetheless, the message is that the focus has been lost.

Look how I’m geekin’ out (hey)

I’m so fitted (I’m so fitted, woo)

I’m on Gucci (I’m on Gucci)

I’m so pretty (yeah, yeah)

I’m gon’ get it (ayy, I’m gon’ get it)

Watch me move (blaow)

This a celly (ha)

That’s a tool (yeah)

On my Kodak (woo, Black)

On the surface the song is a parody of a smash hit, it has all the elements. The way it references regalia, Gucci, “hunnid bands,” cars, and drugs shows a continuous motif of luxury. But the song and music video make a point that the “we” exist contiguously with the rest of the people that make up the neighborhood—the portion that suffers at the hands of power. It aligns them in one space and emphasizes a camaraderie. They are both subjected to determining conditions in their success and loss. The video itself is set in a single garage, a contained environment where both grandstanding and death play out. The landscape has been set, and their roles within these confines are controlled. The reference to “celly,” as a “tool,” is also a call to action in social media platforms, basically hinting at the transparency images and video possess. Not only is he calling attention to what is happening, he is looking to change the weapon of choice.

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

You just a big dawg, yeah

I kenneled him in the backyard

No probably ain’t life to a dog

For a big dog

Gambino poignantly goes off on this phenomenon of power, how regardless of success he will still be marginalized and profiled as a black man, a “barcode,” or a commodity. This feeling is obvious in this set of Tweets he sent out in 2014, one that chillingly says, “I’ve been threatened by police twice this year, hand on holster ‘and i’m childish gambino’,” ends up being his only form of rescue. With this song he is asking people within the community to wake up to the realities of racial profiling. The song itself features 5 other rappers whose parts are akin to reverberating instruments, subtle stylistic repetitions common of trap music. Young Thug, Quavo, 21 Savage, Slim Jxmmi and Blocboy JB are purposefully included to reframe Gambino’s intent with the song. It is not a critique on rappers and their subject or their style, it is a desire to bring it all together. It acknowledges that those within the industry hear his message. He isn’t looking to gripe, but to wake everyone up to the current situation.

That is not to say no one is making efforts. It brings to mind the ingenuity of Chance the Rapper making strides in low-income Chicago, Lupe Fiasco and his Lupe Fiasco Foundation supporting youth development, and it calls for further action in those that have the ability to do so.

Watch the music video if you haven’t seen it here.