Watch lawyers sit in stony-faced silence as Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ blasts out through courtroom speakers

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By Thomas Connelly on

Not even a foot tap

Lawyers at the High Court in Wellington, New Zealand

Video footage showing a group of lawyers in New Zealand listening to rap music has racked up over 60,000 views in under a week.

Taken from the opening day of a trial at New Zealand’s High Court in Wellington, the short clip shows some of the country’s finest legal minds sitting in sober silence as Eminem’s chart-busting banger ‘Lose Yourself’ rings out around the court.

Far from a misguided attempt to motivate the court, the US-born rapper’s 2002 track was actually being played as part of a copyright infringement claim. The National Party (a conservative political party in New Zealand) is accused of using a similar song titled ‘Eminem Esque’ during a 2014 political broadcast.

Lawyers for the track’s publishers are asking for a cash settlement and an acknowledgement by the court that the National Party breached copyright.

Complex legal wranglings aside, the footage — posted online earlier this week — has amassed a whopping 60,000 views and makes for excellent viewing.

One YouTube user commented: “I half expected the guy who pressed play to just flip around and start spitting the verses.” Another, clearly amused by the lawyers’ muted reaction to the music, said: “That club looks sick as fuck.”

The trial is expected to last a week.

Watch the clip in full below:

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