I have watched this video several times, and I am really impressed by it. I think Donald Glover put a lot of thought into this and that it plays on a number of social issues. One of the things that I noticed was in the background "Death on a Pale Horse" I think the line continues on to say followed by evil or hell or something like that. Well if you freeze frame when death rides through, there is a police car parked directly behind him, so there is a lot of symbolism there.
I think the overall purpose of the video ( I have seen a lot of negative criticism saying that the track isn't that good) IS IN FACT THE VIDEO. I think you can turn the sounds off, and watch focused the first time through on the character Donald Glover is portraying, and get the message he is trying to convey. Then watch it again, with the sound off, and watch ALLLLLLL of the stuff going on in the background. It's chaos, which I believe is the point. But there is a lot going on to draw from as well. Regardless, you can put his character together with the background and get the overall picture without even listening to the lyrics.
I think the lyrics and the music are actually part of the overall distraction of the video. You are distracted by his dancing, by the music changing, by the silence at times. Distracted from all of the things going on around him. It's a complete euphemism of the US today. We are so distracted by our phones, having fun, our lives that we don't notice all of the chaos around us. We have more "important" things to do. The significance of any one moment is completely different from one person to the next, I think Glover does a great job conveying that fact in this video.
I love the part where he looks back several times dancing, trying to get the dance team to do the exact move that he is doing, repeating it until they do. That was another of the nuanced "look at me" moments in the video. I think it's awesome.
NNID: Dongo8 XBL Gamertag: Dongos Revenge
