Childish Gambino recently released a video of “Feels Like Summer” which features him strolling down an intriguing street. Whilst the song might not be as iconic as other Gambino’s videos like “This is America”, ‘Feels Like Summer’ is just as intriguing, baffling and engaging. Animated cameos of most of the biggest names in the hip-hop community join him and enjoying the summer day. Rae Sremmurd runs around spraying people like J. Cole with water guns, Haddisha and Oprah braids Zendaya and Lil Uzi Vert and not forgetting Janelle Monae, Will Smith, Kanye West being hugged by Michelle Obama, 21 Savage, Jay-Z and many more. The video is released on a weekend near Labour Day to illustrate merry and joy that comes along during summer. On the other hand, the lyrics in the video has some serious message communication focusing on the dangerous times where there is climate change, pollution due to a lot of merry done during summer and droughts that will follow due to lack of rains and effects of pollution. Gambino used different elements to create meanings to the song and some of them include:
Climate Change
Although subtly, Gambino relays a message on climate change which can be easily ignored. Using celebrity dramas and having a complex lyric hide the significant message in the song about climate change. This is evident in the lyrics when he says "Every day gets hotter than the one before Running out of water, it's about to go down Go down Air that kill the bees that we depend upon Birds were made for singing, waking' up to no sound. No sound" The song is classically about global warming and climate change and just like many songs; the audience is distracted by the popular culture. The song refers to bees dying as a result of climate change but the complete focus is on the hatred between Nicki and Travis or Oprah braiding hair.
Generational divide in the Hip-Hop Community
Considering the hate and anger that has marred the generational divides in Hip-Hop, Gambino tries to bridge the vitriol using his video. The video ignores the streaming numbers; the complexity of its lyrics, artists’ characters et cetera to indicate characters from the two sides of the divide living in peace and portraying a community. At the point when the song’s verses seeks to change, the video portrays solemn pictures of those needing the community’s help, calling for sympathy for the sake of contemporary figures like Kanye and Chris Brown bringing out the memory of Michael Jackson and Whitney who likewise succumbed to the consequences of popularity, however didn't get the help that the present gap denies the individuals who still remain to profit by it. It doesn't mean ignoring all the mistakes they have, yet perhaps to communicate and understand judging and canceling them. Fundamentally, Gambino is imploring that there is a need for change in the view that fosters acceptance- acceptance of the community’s role and responsibilities, acceptance of each other and accepting change itself.
Celebrity News
Gambino also summarizes current celebrity new in his video, for example, Azealia is featured hiding on a tree portraying the time she hid in Elon’s house. Nicki Minaj alleged that Travis Scott was responsible for her poor sales of an album and the animation shows Nicki working hard building the blocks and Travis destroys them. Kanye West, on the other hand, seems to be apologizing for his recent comments and Michelle Obama portrays a mother figure-a classic black mother- trying to comfort him. On the other hand, Drake chases Future who stole his bike but the story is about their roles as fathers. In the summer, Drake and Future were named ‘deadbeat’ dads by Pusha and Ciara respectively and Drake was forced to be responsible by owning up to being a father.
Remorsefulness is illustrated at the beginning of the video where the animated Donald Glover walks down the street with his images appearing black. As he walks through the streets, he passes on a group of black major culture artists whose drawings clearly indicate they are black. Furthermore, there are numerous cameos illustrated in the video but particularly there is a scene where Kanye West weeps and Michelle Obama is there to embrace him.
From the above illustration, it is clear that Blacks are majorly featured in the video and the scenario where Michelle embraces Kanye have some dipper meaning. First, Michelle was the first Black lady who represents both political ideologies and a certain demographic group that is mostly abandoned by the Westerners. Second, While Kanye is weeping, he was wearing a hat that had Donald Trump’s presidential campaign phrase ‘Make America Great Again’. This illustrates the support he had for the president but later he criticized trump’s leadership as slavery with a choice. Later in his comments, Kanye apologized to the president by sharing his view on how Trump cared about the way black people felt. This emotional scene depicts Kanye’s remorsefulness towards what he had earlier commented about the president.
Works Cited
"Childish Gambino 'Feels Like Summer' Hidden Messages You Definitely Missed The First Time." PopBuzz, 3 Sept. 2018, www.popbuzz.com/music/features/childish-gambino-feels-like-summer-meaning/.
"Childish Gambino - Feels Like Summer." YouTube, 1 Sept. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1B9Fk_SgI0
