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As the original Donald Glover stan, I will now give my two cents on This is America armed with my Sick Boi mixtape and IAMDONALD ticket stub. Everyone is now hip to the Jim Crow imagery which I think is meant to be taken several ways.
#1 How DG/CG has felt for sometime. Either you’re the thug or the comedic relief. But what happens when you’re not one and you’re tired of being the other? I think that's the question he's been trying to answer with his career.
#2. The way people want to separate his art from that of other black artists. He has no interest in separating himself as evidence his work is "high brow." His greatness does not depend on shitting on other black artists.
Which is why he enlists artists that are enjoyed by white people but not valued by white institutions. To a certain kinda person, the featured rappers' music holds lesser artistic value. But once they're involved, there's no way to honor the song without honoring them.
Without their contributions to hip hop in general, "This is America" has no reference point. He can't be different if there's nothing to be different from and he is erasing that difference by putting them on the track.
