Watch Marshmello, Lil Peep’s Mysterious ‘Spotlight’ Video
EDM producer Marshmello salutes Lil Peep with the mysterious video for “Spotlight,” his collaborative track with the late rapper.
The clip – set at a diner named “Crybaby,” one of Lil Peep’s tattoo’s – chronicles a motorcyclist’s breakup and her symbolic attempt for closure. After witnessing her ex on a date, she returns home, where the camera lingers on a series of items (a necklace, a knife, a sword, a shirt) that nod to her past relationship.
“Relationships have a way of overwhelming the meaning and context of physical items to the point of hijacking them,” said director Nick Koenig, Lil Peep’s friend and former visual collaborator. “What once was just a household item might now be something that reminds us of that relationship to a point where it overpowers what that item was traditionally meant for. These objects end up developing a shared significance between those in the relationship.”
Koenig also connected the video to Peep, the emerging emo-rapper who died from a Fentanyl and Xanax overdose in November at age 21. “Like Peep’s passing, no one got to say goodbye properly,” Koenig said. “But the objects he left us (his body of work both musical and social) remain ours to share in our relationship with him.”
Marshmello officially issued “Spotlight” last month, tweeting that he “didn’t plan on releasing” the track until Lil Peep’s mother reached out and encouraged him to do so.