Meaning of “American Flags” by Tom MacDonald (ft. Adam Calhoun)

“American Flags” is perhaps the closest Tom MacDonald has ever come to dropping a gangsta rap song, at least out of the tracks of his we have thus far come across. But being who he is, of course this piece possesses a strong political/societal element also, as can be gleaned from the title.

A number of sites have pointed out that with this track being dropped on 28 July 2023, concurrently ongoing is the Jason Aldean controversy which erupted a couple of weeks earlier. Aldean dropped a patriotism-inspired video for his track “Try That in a Small Town“, which shares a similar sentiment. And some people, most simply put, have interpreted the clip in particular as being racist.

The sad fact is that many patriots, i.e. American citizens who are zealous about the ideals upon which their country was founded, do indeed adhere to racist and stereotypical beliefs. 

As far as we can gather, Aldean does not have a reputation for belonging to such organizations. But it doesn’t take rocket science to conclude that the aforementioned features what can be deemed a racist undertone against Black people, as if they are the enemies of the United States.

In any event, up until now Aldean has more or less stood his ground, and it’s paid off in that “Try That in a Small Town” recently topped the Billboard Hot 100. And now, a couple of weeks after the video’s release, we have “American Flags” by Tom MacDonald, another piece inspired by patriotism and possessing an overall theme similar to Adlean’s piece. 

The sentimental/thematic similarities between the two songs may be coincidental, or let’s say it’s something which only the composers of Tom’s song can ultimately verify.

Is Tom even American?

One unignorable aspect of this song that immediately jumps out, for those of us who are actually familiar with Tom MacDonald, is that he’s not even American. Rather, Tom is a citizen of Canada. And whereas ‘patriot’ is usually a term used to describe a such-minded American, as officially defined it can be applied to anyone who devotedly supports their country. But it isn’t as if MacDonald is reppin’ Canada in this song. Instead, he’s biggin’ up the “red, white [and] blue”.

The featured vocalist, Adam Calhoun, is from the United States. He’s a regular collaborator of Tom McDonald, as is Nova Rockafeller, the other credited writer of this song. But to note, Nova is also from up north.

The Lyrics of “American Flags”

The earlier parts of this song, i.e. the chorus up until about the middle of the first verse, does read political, like Tom’s usual fare, albeit in support of the USA. But along the way, you will notice that he starts to tout the formidability of his crew, even if they are patriots. 

Then the rest of the verse basically serves the purpose of Tom illustrating that he and his boys are indeed rugged when it comes to dealing with opps, who in this case would presumably be the internal enemies of the United States.

And the gangsta rap styles extends into Calhoun’s verse, in which for instance he starts off by referencing his gun collection, while alluding to his willingness to use it on opps. But as the track progresses, it becomes obvious that he’s not referring to standard street/personal beef. Or let’s say that the way Adam sees it, he’s on the side of “freedom”, while his rivals are “about evil”. And as far as being a freedom lover goes, as implied, that would include what he perceives as defending his country.

And it isn’t such that Tom and Adam are on the side of the American government. To the contrary, as inferred in the chorus, they consider the mainstream as an opposing force, one which has them “under attack” through censorship. 

“My people of this country and we’re under attack
They banning us, they cancel us for speaking the facts
If you man enough, come stand with us, take USA back
And every time we pull up all you’re gonna see’s
American flags
American flags”

And it’s in the bridge especially where you sorta feel the connection between this song and “Try That in a Small Town”. That is to say that in both instances, the vocalists presents themselves as not only as proud lovers of the United States but so much so that they would defend its flag from desecration. 

Or more specifically as far as   is concerned, it’s as if the rappers at hand are going to rock their flags wherever they may find themselves. So if someone is resultantly offended by such symbolism and tries to bring it, which does happen sometimes in the United States, MacDonald and Calhoun are down for a fight.

On which album does this song appear?

According to a number of sources at the time of this writing, this song with Tom and Adam’s “The Brave II” project. 

“American Flags” credits

Besides for co-writing this song with Adam Calhoun and Nova Rockafeller, Tom MacDonald also produced it.