In the music video “God Bless Amerika” by Lil Wayne, he uses the American flag as a curtain to emphasize what most people think it represents which is a symbol that reflects the American dream, being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but really behind this curtain there are people who don’t have these opportunities and people need to start realizing that. During the first and last scenes Lil Wayne is able to use the visual motif of the American flag to explain how the rest of America is blinded by the poverty and other problems our country faces. He is able to accomplish this by using close up shots, monochromatic lighting and certain commentary all-relating to the flag and his use of it as a visual motif.

During the first scene, you see Lil Wayne standing in front of the American flag, which acts as a curtain that covers a New Orleans neighborhood’s poverty and the lower class people that live within it (0:02). Here the director is using a close up shot in order to display the attention directly on Lil Wayne, but lets the audiences know the flag is in the background because the flag is most important part of the shot. Lil Wayne is displayed in the foreground because his presence is what overall influences the meaning of the flag to the viewer. His lyrics quoting the national anthem draw attention to the flag. For instance, when Lil Wayne says, “ my country tis of thee sweet land of kill em all and let em die” (0:39). He makes the flag the most important part of the shot, which it is because it is physically hiding the lower class neighborhood from the viewer and acting as a curtain to emphasize how other people view the flag. He wants the viewer to erase their previous knowledge about the flag and start focusing on what hides behind it. Directly after he quotes the anthem he actually starts talking about the neighborhood and the people that lie behind the flag switching the focus to the actual people rather than the flag. The close up shot is a very important part of emphasizing the flag as a motif and relating it to the actual people behind it because without focusing on Lil Wayne the meaning behind the flag and what it stands for in the video would not be present. Plus, during this scene you are able to see the people behind the flag as silhouettes letting the audience know that they are there, but the audience is not paying a lot of attention to them because of the flags ability to blind the problems in our country. The close up shot is the reason this scene is so powerful. This is because with the shot on Wayne you are able to listen to him, but it is close enough where you can see the people behind it. The viewer can actually see the motif acting in the way Wayne is portraying it all throughout the video, which is as a curtain. Another aspect that makes this scene so effective regarding the motif is the use of monochromatic colors. What the flag represents in this video is not something good or positive it is extremely negative and the commentary also gives off a very negative vibe. By making the entire music video grey with overcast clouds and no bright colors at all it is giving off a serious vibe, along with a dark and upsetting aspect to it. The use of monochromatic colors during his commentary allows the audience to understand that the motif represents something negative being the poverty and lower class people because all of the dialogue has an aggressive feel to it. For example, the first thing Wayne says is, “ Uh, my mind’s filled with mine fields the ashes fall, the wine spills” (0:15).  Ashes are never used to depict anything positive and ashes most of the time are grey like the setting this video is taking place in. By using negative commentary and these types of colors it emphasizes the overall meaning of the video and meaning of the American flag as a visual motif.

The last scene of this music video shows the flag being drawn up again after being dropped in the beginning, to show the flag acting as a curtain in the struggling neighborhood in New Orleans (4:57). The reason the flag was drawn up at the end was to emphasize the flag as the main part of the video one last time and put it in the minds of the viewer as the video comes to an end. This scene has no commentary at all. All you can hear is a bell as the flag is raised to shield the struggling neighborhood one last time. Even though this scene is extremely short it packs a lot of importance. Letting the video end with a close up of the American flag with no commentary allows all of the attention to be immediately dragged to the flag and nothing else. The flag becomes almost non-existent in the video after it is dropped because once the “curtain” is dropped the poverty is revealed, but when it is all over the curtain must go back up to shield it again. Ending with the flag shows that the curtain went back up and is doing what it did at the beginning because the problem has not been resolved yet. This scene is very similar to the first due to the color scheme and the shots taking place. A close up is used in this final scene to put all of the attention on the flag, but at the same time monochromatic colors are being used and negative commentary as well. These two things are being used to strengthen the mood in the eyes of the viewer, which is negative and heavy hearted. Even though there are no words in this last scene, the last thing Wayne actually says is, “ I saw a butterfly in hell today will I die or go to jail today?” (3:38). Even though these are completely different scenes separated by almost two minutes, it is the last thing on the audiences mind when that flag goes up. The whole meaning of the flag as a motif in this video is saying that there are tons of people that need help and have their lives at risk everyday due to where they live, but people do not realize that because of what they see the flag as. Saying something like “will I die or go to jail today?” lets the viewer know this is how these people live, Wayne adds a personal aspect to the flag with a question that we can not ask ourselves because we do not have to go through it. He wants the viewer to think about what these people go through and by raising that flag at the end to display it as a curtain one last time leaves the question unanswered until it can be ultimately fixed. This can all be related back to the negative word choice and monochromatic colors to display the idea that this is a serious topic and the flag actually does blind people due to what they see it as. The colors are very dark and blend together giving it a depressing tone, which relates to the entire emotional aspect of the video. Using these colors in this scene makes the viewer feel for them Asking the question “ Will I die or go to jail today?” is not something you take lightly, it is very serious and Wayne wants to compare this to the negative ideas of what is behind the flag.

One of the most important scenes in this video takes place as soon as the flag is dropped revealing the neighborhood and the struggling people who live there (1:15). A bird’s eye view is used to here in order to show everyone that is in this neighborhood and the characteristics of the neighborhood as a whole. At this point the flag is dropped and does not show up till the end of the video. This is the most important part of this scene because it shows what the flag is actually being used as and what is actually be hidden by the common meaning of the flag. This helps further the point that the flag is a curtain hiding poverty from the people who do not realize how big of a problem this is to our country. The flag remains on the ground for the rest of this scene showing that Wayne does not respect it due it being falsely identified as something perfect in the United States. By no means is the flag perfect, and he is able to prove this and put it in the mind of the viewer by using grey like colors. Using Monochromatic colors in a scene that is supposed to show something bad is extremely important because the viewer will relate the colors to their emotions and grey is associated with depression, which this topic certainly is. Even though the flag is out of sight for this scene the thought of what it represents is still very much there and is able to represent it by showing exactly what is being hidden behind the curtain.

Overall, the American flag is the most important object in this video due to the fact that it relates to everyone watching and has such a one sided meaning that people can not see what is going on behind it. Many people see the flag as something that symbolizes the American dream, but in this music video Lil Wayne targets emotions and uses negative diction, monochromatic colors and close up shots to emphasize what is actually going on behind the flag. People do not realize how large of a problem this is and that is mainly the reason why Wayne chooses to use the flag as such a large symbol in the video. Everyone can relate to it as a visual motif because it can actually hide a neighborhood from everyone that does not have to go through what these people have to go through. Wayne is looking for change in the United States of America and the best way to get peoples attention is using something that everyone can relate to regardless of where you sit socially in the country.
