Gambino: Back with feels

Ethan Dennis, [email protected]

Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover has released yet another music video that has many people scratching their heads in contemplation.  This video comes four months after Gambino’s VMA-nominated video, “This Is America.”

The video’s overall aesthetics are very hazy, and the song’s lyrics talk about global issues which is different from most songs about the summer. The animated video’s set is based on three Georgia locations: Stone Mountain, Eastside, Atlanta and Dekalb County.

In the video, Gambino walks calmly through a neighborhood watching all of his neighbors playing during the summer, as well as stopping to have emotionally driven dream sequences.

His neighbors include 63 black figures like 21 Savage, Michelle Obama and Kanye West, all designed by creative director Justin Richburg.

Richburg gained popularity after drawing and posting an art piece entitled “Dice game.” Before production began, Gambino had the entire video’s storyline line laid out but asked Richburg to be a part of the project.

While lyrics like “Every day gets hotter than the one before,” “running out of water, it’s about to go down” and “air that kill the bees that we depend upon,” reflect global warming and other issues, the video provides social commentary on the entertainment world.

Impactful scenes include a crying Kanye West, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, being hugged by Michelle Obama and Kodak Black not being able to play outside with fellow rappers Lil Pump and Trippie Redd The video also shows Travis Scott knocking down Nicki Minaj’s tower while they’re playing.

Many believe Black can’t come outside in the video because in real life, he’s in jail. It is also believed that Minaj’s blocks are knocked down by Scott because of a recent feud, but the storyboard for this scene was already designed and animated before the feud occurred over their albums “Queen” and “Astroworld,” respectively.

When viewing the video, many mistake former Denver Broncos football player Shannon Sharpe for Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum and think XXXTentacion is represented as melting ice cream.

The song was initially surprise-released on July 11 as part of a two-song EP entitled “Summer Pack,” featuring both “Feels like Summer” and “Summertime Magic.”