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Donald Glover's This Is America shook the world upon its 2018 release as a poignant and biting commentary on race and police brutality in the nation. However, a recent cover story interview with Glover reveals that the song originally started as something much less noble: a jokey Drake diss track, Yahoo reports. Glover admitted that he had the idea three years before, and the song's central lyric began as a joke about Drake's stomping grounds in Canada.
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Despite its humble origins, Donald Glover recognized the song's potential and began to work on it in earnest. The song's music video director, Hiro Murai, was immediately taken with the idea and encouraged Glover to develop it further. From there, the two began to conceptualize the accompanying video, which Glover describes as We Are The World, but trap style. The video, which features striking imagery and powerful symbolism, received brilliant reviews as well.
Ultimately, Glover's goal with This Is America was to create a “moment” that would capture the cultural zeitgeist of 2018. He wanted to compress all the information about what was happening in the world at that time into one unforgettable experience. By doing so, he succeeded in creating arguably the biggest song in his catalog. While he may have originally intended the song as a joke towards Canada's very own, it's clear that the final product is a powerful and important work of art that will endure for years to come. This Is America has become something much more significant: a defining moment in popular music and culture.
