DMX - Party Up (Up In Here) (Enhanced Video, Edited)

JUL 01 2000 · 12:00

DMX - Party Up (Up In Here) (Enhanced Video, Edited) (2000) Director: Dave Meyers Era: Turn-of-Millennium Hip-Hop (2000) - Peak era of East Coast rap dominance, Ruff Ryders aesthetic, and cinematic narrative-driven music video production at the height of TRL/MTV saturation. A high-priority archival artifact representing the peak of DMX's commercial and cultural impact, the Ruff Ryders aesthetic, and Dave Meyers' emergence as hip-hop's premier cinematic video director. Its crime-thriller narrative framework, rapid editing pace, and warm high-contrast visual grammar make it a textbook example of turn-of-millennium East Coast rap video production. The 'Enhanced Video, Edited' designation indicates this is a post-original broadcast version, warranting comparison with the original 2000 release for editorial and content changes. Context: Released in early 2000 as the second single from DMX's third consecutive #1 album...And Then There Was X (1999), 'Party Up (Up In Here)' arrived at the apex of DMX's commercial dominance. The Swizz Beatz-produced track became DMX's most commercially successful US single, certified triple platinum by the RIAA. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance and ranked #388 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2021). The video's cinematic crime-thriller format, modeled after F. Gary Gray's The Negotiator, mirrored a broader trend of hip-hop videos adopting Hollywood genre conventions during the TRL era, bridging street credibility with mass-market accessibility under Def Jam and Ruff Ryders Productions. Director notes: Confirmed directed by Dave Meyers per IMDB, RateYourMusic (credited as 'David Meyers, video director'), and Songfacts. The video premiered the week of April 3, 2000, and was shot on location at the Frost Bank building on Market Street in Galveston, Texas. In a BET interview, Meyers revealed DMX had scrapped a previous video before hiring him, and that DMX specifically wanted a concept modeled after the 1998 film The Negotiator, directed by F. Gary Gray. The video depicts DMX caught in a case of mistaken identity during a bank robbery. Video producer was Tom Fanning per RateYourMusic credits.