Nico and the Niners

"Nico and the Niners" is a song written and recorded by the American musical duo Twenty One Pilots. It was released on July 11, 2018 as the second of the lead singles from their fifth studio album Trench (2018), alongside "Jumpsuit". The song peaked at number 79 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Composition
"Nico and the Niners" is a reggae, rap, rock and psychedelic song with a length of three minutes and forty-seven seconds. It features a rap verse, a phaser effected ukelele, some vocal audio clips played backwards and a section with a reversed drum beat. Additionally, there are sections using a vocoder effect on clips of the vocals. It was the first song to be completed off Trench. The song is played in an A minor key, and at 140 beats per minute.

Music video
A music video for "Nico and the Niners" was released on July 26, 2018. It was directed by Andrew Donoho, who had directed all the music videos from the Trench trilogy, and was filmed in Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukraine.

The video shows singer Tyler Joseph packing a backpack and meeting drummer Josh Dun in a faded city (known as Dema) square, where they shake hands before joining a group of torch-wielding rebels (called the "Banditos") and perform the song. The video veers between that mysterious thread and the mystical activities of mysterious red-hooded robed figures (also known as the bishops). At the end of the video, two children discover a Bandito's lost gear, but turn to see the nine bishops, the leaders of Dema, walking towards them.

Commercial performance
"Nico and the Niners" made its debut on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at No. 6 and Hot Rock Songs at No. 9 with 19,000 sold. The song peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at No. 7 on the Hot Rock Songs chart. The song also peaked at No. 88 on the UK Singles Chart.

Personnel

 * Tyler Joseph – lead vocals, keyboards, bass, synthesizers, guitar, programming, ukulele, production, songwriting
 * Josh Dun – drums, percussion, backing vocals
 * Adam Hawkins – mixing