Lil Wayne delivers his most politically-charged video with “God Bless Amerika,” a look at Hollygrove, the devastated New Orleans neighborhood where he grew up.
[More after the jump…]
“I saw a butterfly in hell today,” he sings as a beautiful little girl runs by. “Will I die or go to jail today?” The images of the neighborhood kids juxtaposed against police in riot gear provides quite the contrast. Throw in an American flag, one that Lil Wayne stepped on during the video”s filming, and it”s a portrait of the disenfranchised in the United States that most of us do our best to ignore. “The end of time is like an hour away/the stars on the flag are never shining,” he raps.
The Elf Rivera-directed video is a sobering picture of what life is like in some of our poorest communities and the hopelessness amid the burnt-out, decrepit building. The track appears on Lil Wayne’s current album, “I Am Not A Human Being ll.”
On his Facebook page, Lil Wayne wrote about the song: “I was fortunate from my God giving [sic] talents to escape the Hood and see the other beautiful places this country has to offer but most people who are born in that environment don’t get that chance. That’s their view of their America. That was Dwayne M Carter from Hollygrove New Orleans view of America. That’s who I’m speaking for in this song.”
Dwayne M. Carter is Lil Wayne”s real name.