Cole Bennet talks about working with Eminem.
Lyrical lemonade’s Cole Bennett recently directed the music video for Eminem & Juice WRLD’s platinum single ‘Godzilla‘ which also had cameos from Dr. Dre and Mike Tyson. The director recently did an Instagram live session where he talks about working with all of them on the video, 14 hours a day for two straight days.
“It was crazy, it was insane.” said Cole Bennett, “Working with Em alone was insane because it’s Eminem. You grow up listening to Eminem, just understand the impact Eminem has and then working with him? Just from the conceptual side of things, bringing concepts and ideas and then working with him for 14 hours a day, two days in a row and then a whole editing process. It was crazy to be able to step up to the plate and then work and live up to that and play the part was crazy. And then Dr. Dre was cool and down to earth dude, as well as Em. And then Mike Tyson was one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. He felt like just one of the boys you re hanging out.”
Following a lengthy talk with Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg, Bennett prepared eight pages outlining his idea and the material he intended to capture. Because Eminem already had so many iconic videos, he wanted to recognise Eminem’s contribution to hip-hop. However, he also wanted to make it feel like a new Lyrical Lemonade video. He wanted to incorporate every aspect of Eminem without trying to create a timeless classic; he wanted it to be innovative and new. I finished the treatment – there was no pictures, no reference photos, nothing. It was just all words. There was like seven or eight pages, it was like an essay. I just opened piece by piece and I kind of broke it down and how I wanted to do it and what reference to what and I sent it back to Paul and just kind of waited a few days. You know, an artist of that stature, they’re gonna be very particular about how things are done and how they want to look. I was kind of nervous for a little bit and then I got a call back.
You know, they all are just great people, that’s an incredible experience. I might tell more stories later” Bennett’s Lyrical Lemonade regularly encourages and promotes in the emergence of emerging rappers. Lil Pump, whose inclusion on Lyrical Lemonade boosted his popularity to some extent, is an example of this. Pump’s buddy and regular collaborator Smokepurpp, Juice Wrld, Ski Mask the Slump God, YNW Melly, Lil Tecca, NLE Choppa, and Jack Harlow are some more examples.
Watch it below.
