Childish Gambino released a new song titled “This Is America,” which has become an overnight cultural phenomenon, especially for African-Americans.

Throughout the single Gambino plays the complex role of America herself; from violence to the use of entertainment as a distraction with symbolic visuals in the music video to portray the current issues at hand.

Gambino comes into view wearing pants and shoes that Twitter users have linked to old Confederate uniforms, he’s also wearing two small gold chains, a double entendre for physical bondage, and obsession with consumerism.

While dancing with exaggerated dance movements and facial expressions, Gambino’s lyrics point to a darker undercurrent to the cavorting and exaggerated dance. The songs unique harsh switch up transitioning from the intro to the first bridge goes from peaceful guitar strumming to intense bass, production, and rapping instantly. This single brings a lot of issues in America to light that we tend to ignore on a daily basis. Gambino tackles the issues of an entertainment media that serves as a distraction from bigger issues at hand, gun violence, police brutality, and social equality.

This is a step in the right direction for hip-hop, a shows the genre’s continued focus on social issues, making the form of music difficult to dismiss. Gambino’s single is another anthem in the long list of socially conscious hip-hop songs. It serves to counter a narrative of hip-hop as a surface level talk about the glories of drug use and losing control and serves to highlight what hip-hop does best, focus on people and the issues of the moment.