Music

Hello, Childish Gambino Just Dropped The Music Video Of The Year

'This Is America' is a confronting look at gun violence, Black Lives Matter, and police brutality.

Childish Gambino

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Late Saturday night, just as he was wrapping up his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, Childish Gambino dropped a music video for his new single ‘This Is America’.

To say the video politically charged is an understatement: ‘This Is America’ is a confronting look at gun violence, police brutality, and the fractured social state in the US right now.

In just four minutes, and with help from frequent Atlanta director and longtime collaborator Hiro Murai, Gambino manages to highlight the 2015 Charleston mass shooting, the Black Lives Matter movement, and America’s gun epidemic.

And while all this is happening in the background, Donald Glover struts, high-steps and dances his way in front of it all — a pointed reminder that society chooses to ignore what’s really going on behind in front of our eyes.

If you haven’t seen it already, watch it right now:

The video has drawn praise from artists and punters alike:

‘This Is America’ is the first single from Glover since his Grammy Award-nominated 2016 album Awaken, My Love. Unfortunately for us, he’s flagged that his next Gambino album will be his last.

“There’s nothing worse than like a third sequel, like a third movie and we’re like, ‘again?’” Glover told Huffington Post last year. “You know, I like it when something’s good and when it comes back there’s a reason to come back, there’s a reason to do that.”

While on Saturday Night Live he also performed another new single, called ‘Saturday‘. There’s no release date yet for the new album, but we can probably expect it sometime before the end of the year.