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Music

Marshmello's New Video For "Spotlight" Is a Tribute to Lil Peep

In a statement, the producer said that he thought the visual was "exactly" what Peep would have wanted.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

Last month, producer Marshmello released "Spotlight," a track he'd worked on with the late rapper Lil Peep who died in November 2017. On the song, Marshmello takes the lead from Peep's emo/trap sensibility, supplying big, pervasive synths and skittering drums. The instrumentation enhances the drama of the lyrics, which are, as Noisey's Colin Joyce put it, focused on "the confusing aftermath of romantic dissolution."

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If "Spotlight" is anything to go by, Marshmello understood Peep, who was born Gustav Åhr, pretty well indeed, and that's only highlighted by his choices now that the time has come for a video. The narrative is one of lost love—what else?—and throughout there are a number of sweet nods paying tribute to Peep (for example, the name of the diner where the action takes place, Crybaby's, references his famous tattoo).

In a statement obtained by Pitchfork, Marshmello said of the "Spotlight" visual, "For this video I just wanted what Gus would have wanted. And I think this is exactly it." Watch it above.

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