Video Decoder: Das Racist, ‘Michael Jackson’

Our heros have been taken to a mysterious room full of strange signifiers and pirate hats. What wonders will Michael Jackson reveal to them?

Continuing the Christlike theme of MJ's resurrection, there is a table festooned with symbolic foods and populated by shadowy figures.

He represents the rough seas one must sail in order to attain commercial success. Or, alternately: white people.

Victor, Hima, and Michael vie for their literal and metaphorical "place at the table."

Overcome by the bounty before him, Dap's eyes turn into holograms.

The tables have turned.

Das Racist is "carrying" Michael Jackson's legacy into the future by writing a song that critically engages with his body of work.

Their position relative to the Earth symbolizes their designs on global superstardom. And green screens. ALL YOUR GREEN SCREENS ARE BELONG TO US.

These frames parody the means by which popular American artists will attempt to sell the cultures of foreign peoples for fame and profit.

The Indian dancers are literally turning their backs on this bullshit!

He symbolizes the ancient oppressive power structures that must be dismantled in order to move forward.

None for the "ethnic" dancers! All for the fine and impressive American rappers!

Michael Jackson/A million dollars/You feel me?/Holler!

MJ harvests the fruits of his capitalist labor.

The beast within unleashed, Dap reveals that capitalists are little more than elegant cannibals disguised in fineries.

We zoom out once again, this time into a Beavis and Butthead-esque cartoon world. Much like in our world, the television is the only thing that seems truly real.

The names on their shirts symbolize three diverging paths to commercial success. Which one is best?

The modern recording artist is little more than a stripper performing pole tricks for dollar bills.

But as with the actual adult entertainment industry, the work can at times be enjoyable. And those dollar bills eventually transform into larger bills such as the rapper's favored denomination, "the Benjamin."

This sequence almost definitely alludes to the diverse transformations of Michael Jackson's 1991 masterwork, "Black Or White," while bringing a decidedly less Pollyanna-esque sensibility to issues of race, class, and prejudice.

...or a member of Vampire Weekend.

By exposing the artifice of the video making process, Das Racist alludes to their cultural status as truth-tellers.

Truth-tellers constantly menaced by the giant, sequined hand of the ghost of Michael Jackson.