Internet Discovers That Childish Gambino's "This Is America" Sounds A Lot Like A Song That Came Out In 2016

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Tricky. The songs have a lot of similarities. They both alternate from a soulful, melodic hook to a darker, bass-heavy beat that cements the verses. Jase Hartley modulates the tone of his rapping, using an anxious, almost fearful pitch at times to express the angst of his lyrics. Childish Gambino does the same thing, to a lesser extent. Both songs are about the plight of black America. Both follow a similar syllabic pattern, like ba da da ba da da ba da da (I don’t know how else to express this).

“I’m young and I’m black in America. They try to attack and embarrass us.”

“This is America, don’t catch you slippin’ up.”

Seems like a lot of coincidences. Too many to think that Donald Glover had never heard Jase Hartley’s song before making This Is America. If we operate under that assumption, the question becomes whether or not it’s a bad look for Donald Glover to have “borrowed” from American Pharaoh without at least mentioning the song. For that, let’s check in on what Jase Hartley said:

Pretty much an “eh, who cares. A shoutout would have been nice.” Admirable response. I would have been fucking pissed. Why?

vs.

Ghostwriters get paid when they write lyrics for Beyonce, Rihanna, Drake, etc. Donald Glover made a LOT of money on this song. It was a cultural phenomenon and we talked about it for a month. I think the music video was actually more brilliant than the song, but there’s no music video without the song, so it all comes back to “American Pharaoh.” Who knows, maybe this revelation will put him on the map and springboard him to massive success? Personally, I think Donald Glover should give him a million dollars. Seems like a nice, round, totally arbitrary number. The court has spoken.