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That Random Empire State Building Light Show Was For This Eminem 'Venom' Performance
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 16, 2018
Modified Oct 16, 2018
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 16, 2018
Modified Oct 16, 2018
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Remember a few weeks ago when the lights at the Empire State Building rapidly flashed and cycled through various colors while helicopters ominously hovered all around? We speculated that it was for an Eminem video shoot, and it turns out that was mostly correct. The light show was indeed for Eminem's performance of "Venom," which was done as part of a week of NYC shows for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Eminem starts the video in the lobby of ESB as the camera switches back and forth between outdoor shots of the lightshow, and him rapping the gloriously goofy lyrics to the Venom tie-in theme song. Then Eminem finds a microphone inside the ESB elevator (how convenient!), and he takes an escalator (also very convenient!), and there's more of the light show outside.
The music pauses so Eminem and Guillermo can chat about some ESB historical facts, which makes this basically a throwback to late '90s/early '00s rap music videos, which were constantly being interrupted by skits.
"If you get a chance, you should check out the exhibit on the 80th floor," Eminem tells him. "This building was designed by a guy named William Lamb, and it only took him like 410 days to build it. That’s crazy, right?" Eminem finally reaches the 103rd floor balcony (which looks like this in daylight) and completes the song—which is pretty terrible, albeit in an amusing way. Check it all out below.
Tagged
eminem
empire state building
esb lights
jimmy kimmel
jimmy kimmel live
venom
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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