FORT WORTH, Texas — North Texas fans of Kendrick Lamar may have noticed some familiar sights in his latest music video.
The Grammy-winning rapper released the music video for his new song "N95" on Saturday, and it quickly jumped to 2 million views on YouTube.
To the surprise of some fans, at least two places located in the heart of Fort Worth could be seen in the video.
Lamar hired the company Red Productions, which is based in Fort Worth. Owner Red Sanders and his team scouted locations to match Lamar's ideals.
"We had collaborated with someone else on their team before on a previous music video and they remembered how film-friendly Fort Worth was...," Red Sanders said. "They sent over like a mood board, and like ideas of what they wanted shots to look like."
One of the locations appeared to be the Renzo Piano Pavilion auditorium at the Kimbell Art Museum. This can be seen at the :53 mark of the video.
The Piano Pavilion was unveiled in 2013 and features an art gallery, several studios, a library and the 299-seat auditorium.
Perhaps the easiest attraction to spot for North Texans is the Fort Worth Water Gardens at the 1:24 mark. The video shows Lamar walking down the steps of the Active Pool.
Warning: The below video contains explicit language.
The iconic landmark was built in 1974 and is located just south of the Fort Worth Convention Center, between Commerce and Houston Streets.
The water gardens, however, are no stranger to pop culture.
The landmark was featured in the 1976 sci-fi film "Logan's Run" and in another music video for Solange Knowles' "Almeda."
Sanders said he started Red Productions in Fort Worth, as many of his colleagues competed for work in cities like L.A. and New York. He is from North Texas and wanted to give entrepreneurship a chance after graduating college.
In 2019, Sanders collaborated with The Fort Worth Film Commission formed in 2015 to attract more filmmakers to North Texas. Now, years later, it's been a huge plus for "N95".
"This was a very collaborative piece both with the city and with the film commission. With the museums and the cultural district," said Sanders.
Lamar has been on the trend recently following the release of not only "N95" but an entirely new album titled "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers."
As of Monday, May 16, the "N95" music video had over 8 million views and was the No. 2 trending video on YouTube, leading to many eyes on the city of Fort Worth.
Sanders now hopes the success of Lamar's video leads to even more artists calling on his company. More importantly, he hopes it sends the message of how filmmaker-friendly Fort Worth is compared to other cities.
"Seven years ago we worked with the then Mayor Price and visit Fort Worth to start the film commission here," Sanders said. "Jessica Kristofferson and Taylor Hardy have just done a terrific job with carrying that vision and expanding upon it and bringing so many just incredible projects to town, like '1883' to '12 Mighty Orphans'."
Fans in North Texas will also be able to see Lamar in person this summer as his latest tour will take him to Dallas.
The hip hop artist's "Big Steppers Tour" is scheduled for a stop at the American Airlines Center on July 23.
