Saturday night as he held down the dual role of both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live, Donald Glover revived his role as Childish Gambino when he dropped off the loaded “This Is America” music video.
The clip which serves as an artful criticism of police brutality against Black Americans, gun violence and domestic terrorism in the United States is directed by Hiro Murai and features a guitar player who is graphically shot in the head by Gambino as the video gets underway and to its pivotal point.
While the Internet went crazy over the clip, with both praise and critique abound, speculation arose around who that guitar player was and eventually, many settled on his identity aligning with that of Tracy Martin—the father of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old unarmed black teenager shot and killed by George Zimmerman in 2012.
https://twitter.com/_/status/993185663775277057
https://twitter.com/_/status/993164653944606721
https://twitter.com/_/status/993263249134104576
As it turns out though, the guitar player is actually the Los Angeles-based artist and actor Calvin The Second. Calvin confirmed this when he posted a brief message accompanying a clip of the video on his socials.
“Cats out of the bag! Catch me in @childishgambino’s music video for his song “This Is America” (it’s a bit graphic, so don’t necessarily let your kids see it though 😬) Got the call from one of my agents while up at Coachella that they wanted me for the shoot on Sunday, drove down and got to be a part of history,” he penned.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BibGxjCF3DL
