Last night, Kanye West released the song New Slaves by projecting the music video onto the side of 66 buildings across the world. One of the projection locations, on the side of the Museum of Design & Arts near Columbus Circle in New York, was close enough for us to go check out, so we drank a bunch of caffeine, put on our coolest shoes, and headed down to the museum.
People waiting for the video on the wrong side of the building
The video was scheduled to play at 1:00 am, and by that time there were people everywhere with cool shoes and their top button buttoned. After a short wait - and a bit of confusion about exactly what side of the building the video would be projected on a moving truck that had been completely blacked out with tape and blankets pulled around Columbus Circle and parked in the middle of the street outside the museum, on Broadway just north of 58th Street.
People waiting to watch the video, on the correct side of the building
The projection truck
Blacked out truck door
The truck parked in the far east lane and projected the video onto the east side of the museum
A bunch of people dressed in all black jumped out of the truck, and out of a black jeep that was also parked in the street. Some of the people worked on opening the truck to display the projector, one dude started up the video, and a few more of them were running around with expensive cameras filming stuff.
This dude has got it all figured out
Setting up the projection
The video, which conceptually is just various shots of Kanyes face as he raps the lyrics, was accentuated by the emergency broadcast feel of the screening. However, this is the first time weve ever watched a music video where hundreds of people point their cell phones and our camera at a building the whole time. The spectacle of the screening itself almost begged to be documented which is why we were there documenting it but it probably wasnt the best way for people to appreciate the quality of the song or video.
Still from "New Slaves" by Kanye West
A photo of people taking photos of a music video with their cell phones
The video ends with Kanye looking into the camera and a bunch of dudes running up behind you telling you to move because the truck is about to leave. They all hop in and drive away to the next screening location, and all the fans probably go home (other than the two dudes who hopped on the back of the truck for a free and dangerous ride to the next spot). It was definitely the weirdest music video screening weve ever been to, but also one of the coolest, and were really glad that Kanye West is doing something unique with music videos as a way to promote his new single and album. A guy like Kanye West doesn't need to project his music video on the side of the Museum of Design & Arts for people to watch it, but it's pretty sweet that he did.
