Either Spike Lee is just a really big Eminem who's willing to pay a visit to the Detroit set of the rapper's "Headlights" video — during Knicks season, no less — or he's directing the video.
Bet on option two.
This, of course, wouldn't be the film director's first video — we've previously recapped his work, especially the Do The Right Thing tie-in video for Public Enemy "Fight The Power" — but it's been a long time since he came back to the short form.
Eminem as Max Headroom is the perfect visual metaphor for Eminem as a Perfect Rap Android, but director Rich Lee also takes the "man x machine" idea into lots of other areas, with just the right amount of divinity for our Rap God...
Eminem and the Syndrome squad deliver something entirely different from their last video, "Berzerk." This time we're in the dark corners of Detroit where footage of a stadium gig and some Call Of Duty: Ghosts Recon are project on walls alongside graffiti tags.
It took a certain kind of lunatic to create a compilation VHS tape: Two VCRs, bouncing clips back and forth and then proceeding to degrade it with every dub you made for friends. And that is exactly what we have with "Berzerk," an homage to old-school rap — the most obvious cues are Beastie Boys "So What'cha Want," the album art for LL Cool J "Radio," and guest star Rick Rubin, who produced this track and the early Beasties and LL stuff, plus lots more — mixed together with street fights and other mayhem to create a blaze of fuzzy glory.
There's of course a traditional video ready to go, but the premiere plan is also charting a new course. A sneak peek of "Berzerk" will air during halftime of this week's Saturday Night Football on ESPN — tomorrow, September 7 — pitting Notre Dame vs. Michigan. "Berzerk" will also be the official theme song for the season, and ESPN is collaborating with Team Em on a video that will be exclusively theirs to use on the Saturday Night Football broadcast.
Eminem can't live without his Radio as he premieres new track "Berzerk" with a retro spin (no pun intended) of the Replacements record player video instead of the typical lyric clip.
In terms of sound it's a throwback to the early days of rap, especially the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J. Also: Billy Squier samples always rule.
Jay Z has Samsung in his pocket, but Eminem is partnering with Activision's massive video game property Call of Duty. New song "Survival" gets matched with Call Of Duty: Ghosts gameplay footage.
Kinda serves the same purpose as a lyric video, except we can assume Em got a nice check for letting Activision do all the heavy-lifting with the visuals... and a pre-recorded tease by Eminem makes clear that there's more synergy to come.
