Santana - Put Your Lights On ft. Everlast

JUL 01 1999 · 12:00

Santana - Put Your Lights On ft. Everlast (1999) Director: Dave Diomedi Era: Late-90s Post-Grunge / Latin Rock Revival (1999) - Peak era of Santana's commercial comeback via the multi-platinum Supernatural album; rap-rock crossover and spiritual lyric content typify the late-Clinton-era alternative mainstream. High curatorial value as a primary audiovisual document of the Supernatural album campaign, one of the most commercially significant moments in late-20th-century popular music. The video's stark visual language, spiritual subject matter, and rap-rock genre fusion make it a distinctive and tonally unusual entry in Santana's video catalog. Its warm-low-key cinematography and rapid editorial rhythm provide a strong counterpoint to the brighter, more celebratory aesthetics of 'Smooth' and 'Maria Maria', offering archivists a complete spectrum of the Supernatural visual campaign. Context: Released in late 1999 as the second single from Santana's landmark comeback album Supernatural, 'Put Your Lights On' represented a unique cultural intersection: the resurgence of Carlos Santana's Latin rock legacy fused with Everlast's post-House of Pain hip-hop identity and Islamic spiritual imagery. The song, written by Everlast while recovering from a near-fatal heart attack in 1998, carried authentic mortality-driven spiritualism into a mainstream pop-rock vehicle. Supernatural itself became one of the best-selling albums in recorded music history, selling over 30 million copies worldwide and winning nine Grammy Awards in 2000, including Album of the Year. The video's dark, low-lit warehouse aesthetic visually separated 'Put Your Lights On' from the sunlit Latin-pop feel of co-singles 'Smooth' and 'Maria Maria', signaling a harder, more introspective corner of the Supernatural universe. Director notes: Two independent sources, the Music Video Wiki (Fandom) and Grokipedia, attribute direction of the 'Put Your Lights On' video to Dave Diomedi, with a 1999 release date. The video reportedly features gritty urban footage shot in Los Angeles warehouses and streets, with moody low-key lighting designed to evoke the song's themes of darkness and spiritual warning. Diomedi's concurrent VH1 work in 1999 (VH1 Celebrity Karaoke Cabaret, Blondie's Back Live in NYC '99, VH1 Big Backyard Barbecue with the Goo Goo Dolls) establishes his active presence in music video and live music television production at this exact time. No official Arista Records or Santana.com production credit sheet has been located to independently verify the directorial attribution, hence confidence is marked 'likely' rather than 'confirmed'.