A Rhetorical Analysis Of This Is America

On May 5, 2018, Atlanta rapper Childish Gambino released a video for his new song titled “This is America.” The video featured not-so-subtle commentary on the current gun debate in the United States and began trending quickly. Many began to wonder if a song with this much political weight could make it past the viral stage and hold its own on the music charts. One of those inquiring was Chris Molanphy, a journalist for Slate.com who often writes about popular music. He makes the claim that this song is “one of the most lyrically daring [Billboard] Hot 100 No. 1 in history.” In his article, “‘This is America,’ the Video, Is a Smash. Will the Song Have Legs?,” Molanphy uses diction, ethos, and analogy to argue that Gambino’s “This is America”

has had an “unprecedented” effect on the music charts.
There are many elements to Molanphy’s argument, but one in particular stands out and that is his diction.

His analysis of the video and song seem more akin to a movie critic’s review of the next Quentin Tarantino film. He comments, “the video...is daring, provocative, traumatizing, cynical,... and to many, a work of genius.” This jarring examination seems relatively out of place for a song in the number one spot on the radio. One could attribute this simply to shock value, but Molanphy sees (or hears) something more when he acknowledges, “When you focus on [the] music, you gradually adjust to what initially makes it so jarring, particularly the lurch from the the sweet, acoustic Afrobeat intro to the droning, brooding chorus.” Incidentally, the song is much more than Gambino’s “cri de coeur” as Molanphy puts it, as it stands alone as a legitimate piece of hip-hop music. Paired with the video, the dark commentary does not seem so out of place when you recognize the history of rap music and its influences. He recognizes this best when he uses ethos to increase his

credibility.
Molanphy, along with a list of other credentials, writes for a series on Slate that deals with number one hits and this is ultimately what gives his argument the most significance.

As someone whose job it is to write about music, their analysis and experience should be taken into account among other things. He brings this up in the article to point to the fact that he had to look back on other points like this in history to see how a song like this could perform so well and consistently. Surprisingly, for someone who delves into number one hits regularly, there was not a time that paralleled Gambino’s situation. This strengthens his argument for the “unprecedented” territory. He goes on to interpret the data and finds even more extraordinary feats, including the fact that the video is one of the main reasons for its number one spot. However, while the video got it to number one, it is streams without the video that are keeping it there, Molanphy notes. Along with the data, he also looks into the song and picks apart parts which he feels resonates with listeners. These include the triple entendres and the melodies featured (but uncredited) artists, such as Young Thug, provide. By addressing these topics, the author's credibility increases and allows more latitude to be given when making his

argument.
The final technique Molanphy takes advantage of is his use of analogy to other musical works. When “This is America” first came out, its performance was never in question. According to Molanphy, it sold over 50,000 copies and was number one on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it sold less than the previous number one songs by almost 50 percent. This in itself was shocking, considering the circumstances. A song with extremely political undertones undersells, still hits number one, and has “airplay” on radio stations. In 2014, Molanphy had another article looking into Meghan Trainor’s number one song “All About That Bass” where he stated that this was as “in your face” as people wanted their ‘protest’ songs; however, he recognizes now that he was completely wrong in this analysis. Gambino truly defied the premise that people do not want politics in their entertainment. Molanphy tries his hand again at another “analog”, this time time with Beyonce’s song “Formation.” This song had similar element’s to “America” including a social message and encouraging empowerment towards being black. Unfortunately, that is where the comparisons end because intentionally or not, Beyonce dropped the ball when it came time to release the song and it did not see anything higher than a number ten spot, according to Molanphy. The comparisons he displays prove to be a huge push for his argument as they show how there is nothing like “This is America” in terms of chart debut and airplay. As he notes, “[In the ‘60’s,] the openly anti-war songs were not chart-toppers (and in 1966, the pro-war song was).” Clearly, a song that takes it upon itself to criticize America and how it deals with tragedy and political policy would not have done so well in the past, and quite frankly, it is surprising that it is doing so well now.
Ordinarily, a song of this magnitude, would go viral and then eventually forgotten with not much to say for itself. Molanphy argued that a song like “This is America” has not performed as well in history. His diction and tone toward this song were dark, tense, and brooding and that in itself says a lot about how it was received and the precedent it set for music of the future. Moving forward, he used his ethos to give a better vantage point, which allowed him to delve deeper than just the surface of the song. He showed his understanding of how music is received and the past efforts of other artists reaching the top. Finally, he used analogy to compare Gambino’s song to others of its niche and to ultimately see if it was one of kind. Molanphy’s techniques were best culminated when he concluded: in order for a political song to chart, “it would have to be intrinsically viral, it would have to be so open to interpretation that even Fox News viewers would want to click…” This is exactly what happened and ultimately what makes Molanphy’s argumentative techniques so effective.