Anyone else hear the new Childish Gambino record?

bamcquern -- the idea that "Don't catch you slippin up" is somehow a profound line is the sort of thing that gets me here. This sentiment is expressed all the time in rap tracks in almost those exact words. its almost a cliche. And those tracks sound equally if not more intense, claustrophobic, and are narratively more rich because there's things going on besides just the play and juxtaposition of phrases. You can't just take this cliche that expresses something both common but also, yes, intense, and then say that it became profound because glover made a funny face while saying it and was in a carpark instead of on a streetcorner or something.

you say that the "job" of these devices is to "get a mass audience talking about the social and political issues presented in the song & video" but i don't see that happening. people see what they want in the video -- but seriously, cities have been erupting in protests for some years now, the news cycle has been dominated by all sorts of issues. like... what _actually_ is this video going to get people to "talk" about that wasn't already there? The response I've seen thus far has been outlets just praising the mere reference to the _existence_ of issues, paired with like a rundown of various scenes in the background and what they're supposed to represent like captain midnight's secret decoder ring. honestly it feels like a big-budget version of SNL's "high school theater" sketch.

I don't see distancing to the song or video - a lot of what's compelling to me is the way the elements are presented without being commented on, Glover implicating himself in everything he's rapping about.

Presuming intentional Profundity then judging on that basis can lead one down some bad paths.

I'm trying hard to make the connection between the artist who created this song/video/performance and the Super Bowl Halftime guy who did "Moves Like Jagger".

I need to go back to the M.I.A. thread and see who compared her to Katy Perry.

TBF above it looks like that Bruno Mars comparison was originally just about the song Saturday.

This song is flat out awesome and the video only made it better for me.

So much of hip-hop (all of it?) is politically charged anyway, it's amusing to me why people are latching on to to the political element of this video so much.

I don't know why I did it, knowing the likely outcome, but I just read Armond White's take on it. He makes some points that I think Sterling was alluding to above. I should use this frustration and go exercise now.

This thread has been awaiting Armond White's response, especially if NRO ran it.

tbh I'd like to know your response too Al

TBF above it looks like that Bruno Mars comparison was originally just about the song Saturday.

This. But, y'know, ilm threads will always be about 80% people purposely misreading someone's opinion in order to prove a different point.

Only for my own sake of clarity, all I was saying is that, to me, "Saturday" was a more effective 80s pastiche than Bruno's 80s pastiche songs. That's it. In no way whatsoever was I claiming that "Childish Gambino does Bruno Mars better than Bruno Mars".

Give examples, sterl. which songs use this line? and do they have the same context? ie, I believe, simply being Black in America?

the devices do their "job" successfully because people are talking about the song and it's social and political import. like we are now. you want them to talk about it in a different way?

the secret decoder ring exegesis seems to be your preferred way of engaging with art, which is maybe why you're dissatisfied with the song. most people aren't taking this positivist add-it-up approach because it's art and they tacitly understand art isn't a math problem of sufficient or insufficient quantities.

I dunno I'm on ilx so I should expect greater than/lesser than crit. "there's another unspecified song that does this better." "there's another specified song that does it better and its aims are exactly the same and btw music is so strictly quantitative that this is a valuable way to talk about it."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/entertainment/trayvon-martin-father-this-america/index.html

people just believe any goddamned thing they see on twitter apparently

bamcquern you have literally misread every word i wrote.

cool cool cool. except I haven't.

you said the brechtian distancing isn't doing its job. I said it is. thousands of people are having conversations about the song & its message & its politics just like we're having. people talking about themes within and adjacent to the song before the song existed is not some deficiency of the song's.

it's true, you said the sentiment of the line is trite, which to me is a very broad complaint and completely elides the poetry and placement of the line, but you also said "in almost those exact words." Which exact words? And I'd argue that, yes, the line is forceful (not necessarily "more" forceful) embedded in the "play and juxtaposition of phrases." the specific words are important because poetry isn't horseshoes.

his face has nothing to do with whether the line is good or not.

except that i think that gambino's is delivered with a wink and a nod, an ironic distance that says "look when i'm talking about materialism i don't mean it, i'm criticizing that people talk about guns and money as the problem, as the distraction while the real stuff is happening elsewhere," which is precisely what's denying that these same themes and issues are elsewhere, but presented without that sort of dimestore brechtian distancing, and often more genuinely and sharply, while this is all reflected through so much artifice that it doesn't feel like it connects to me -- it represents connecting, and it simulates making a statement. moves right past brecht to baudrillard.

this is the decoder ring shit - your own, not unnamed critics. this is what I mean by a calculus & you're the one that brought this mode of criticism & appreciation (or lack of) to the thread. you've made yourself the arbiter of when gambino is being ironic & how ironical he's being; you're putting words in gambino's mouth and evaluating how sincere he is or isn't being; you're talking about themes like they're manipulable units, as if identifying what's being talked about in art robs it of its power.

& you clearly make comparative mentions not only to other rap tracks.

remove "not only" bc I don't need to get into it

"you've made yourself the arbiter of when gambino is being ironic"

you mean i've attempted to perform a critical reading of a text? go home.

https://media2.giphy.com/media/xTiTnJ3BooiDs8dL7W/giphy.gif

^^ new borad description tbf

The video is so good. Wish the lyrics were as powerful but I’m all in for this new phase of CG after not being a fan of his previous works.

Like the song but Glover seems like a bit of an egotist

https://78.media.tumblr.com/12b64ae950e7310945e9941ae07863be/tumblr_ncc65lyqzQ1s2wio8o1_500.gif

This is America vid feels very Kendrick-lite to me

nothing wrong with Kendrick being an influencer IMO particularly for songs and/or videos that have this kind of wide viewership

"dimestore brechtian distancing"

as opposed to threepenny brechtian distancing?

Xpost: agreed. Idk if Kendrick-lite is meant as an insult but more rappers emulating him is desirable imho.

this is all reflected through so much artifice that it doesn't feel like it connects to me -- it represents connecting, and it simulates making a statement.

I guess this was my takeaway, too; the video had me thinking more about its production and technical aspects than it “connected” emotionally or intellectually (but seems I’m in the minority, and it’s not a hill I’ll die on). There certainly are a lot of “decoder rings” all over YouTube, etc. I’m sure that’s part of the point with all the signifiers, to get people learning about things they maybe weren’t aware of.

jfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUWq_aBiE_s&feature=youtu.be

link doesn't work for me

doesn’t even sync up that well

I think the buy-in point is the gun firing when the chorus starts.
Anyway it’s a positive “jfc” from me

uuuh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8whgmyTNU

oh my god

dying at the thumbs up/down ratio there.

https://i.imgur.com/xdIwcrr.jpg

It's terrible, obviously, but I also have no clue what she is "singing".

I browsed her youtube channel a bit and I think she may be a kind of career youtube troll, and a really boring one at that

#1 on the Hot 100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUWq_aBiE_s

What about Gambino's version? x-post

Is this a reach?

This will largely be overlooked but it sounds like same damn song and this was released a few years prior.

Has this been discussed? https://t.co/kqTSH4fTrv

— Baby Freeway 🇧🇷🇳🇬 (@RappersRActors) June 24, 2018

Initial reaction was yeah but repeat listens has me questioning

I don't know, but it's a good track.

Great track that happens to have the same flow, same subject matter and strikingly similarly stripped down percussive trap beat with vocal chants.

Either way the artist seems to be cool with it so may as well leave it at that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkc_rJJg27q/?hl=en&taken-by=jaseharley

I feel like Weird Al needs to make a parody of 'This is America' (partly because the music video would be great).
What would it be titled?

I feel like he doesn't

i feel like he needn't make any more music ever again but i realize i'm in the minority on that one

This is Antarctica.

Love this is America

Love this is America Style

new video is neat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1B9Fk_SgI0

The aesthetic is kinda simpsonswave.