The song also features backing vocals from fellow American rappers Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd, BlocBoy JB, Quavo, and 21 Savage.

[4][5] The lyrics and accompanying music video, reflecting the core of the Black Lives Matter movement, confront issues of ongoing systemic racism, including prejudice, racial violence, the ghetto, and law enforcement in the United States, as well as the wider issues of mass shootings and gun violence in the United States.

[9] The song features a gospel-style choir and ad-libs from Young Thug, Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd, BlocBoy JB, 21 Savage, and Quavo.

[14] Glover has stated that the idea for the song "started as a joke," elaborating in a video interview with GQ: “To be completely honest, ‘This is America’ — that was all we had was that line.

So I was like, let me play with it.”[15][16] (As Childish Gambino, Glover had a mostly one-sided feud with Drake that began in 2014; he has since clarified his 'bravado' was just part of the gig and no hate was intended.

)[16] A number of listeners accused Gambino of plagiarism over "This Is America", pointing out the similarities between the song and "American Pharaoh" by Jase Harley.

[22] The music video was directed by Hiro Murai and released on YouTube simultaneously with Gambino's performance of the song on Saturday Night Live.

Only 53 seconds into the video, Gambino shoots a man in the back of the head with a handgun, while assuming a comical stance similar to a Jim Crow caricature.

In both scenes a child appears from off-screen holding a red cloth, on which Gambino gently lays the weapon used, while the bodies are simply dragged away.

Other schoolchildren are seen on a catwalk above, using their cell phones to record the chaos happening in the video as Gambino sings the lyrics "This a celly / That's a tool".

Martha Tesema, writer for website Mashable, stated that "cell phones have been used as tools to broadcast police shooting, rioting against, or choking black people in this country".

Throughout the video, numerous vehicles from several decades ago are featured, many of them with their hazard lights flashing and the driver's side door ajar.

"[30] Mahita Gajanan of Time quoted music history professor Guthrie Ramsey at the University of Pennsylvania: He's talking about the contradictions of trying to get money, the idea of being a black man in America.

[39][40][41] The music video also spawned popular Internet memes, particularly those in which the audio was replaced so that Childish Gambino appeared to be dancing in time to another song.

Versions using Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" and Banda Blanca's "Sopa de Caracol" were some of the most viewed.

Gambino is also the second Emmy Award-winning actor to reach number one on the Hot 100, the first being Justin Timberlake, who topped the chart with "Can't Stop the Feeling!"