Vids › The Weirdness, Part 2

NIKO IS – Vamoose

2015 · Directed by Chris Smith

328 Likes

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Best comments

1.“What did I just watch and hear?”

More comments

2.“Acid and this song is a must.”
3.“I got introduced to NIKO IS and Thanks Joey 5 days ago... these last five days of playing y'all's music on a constant basis have LITERALLY improved my quality of life.”

The story

By 2015 NIKO IS had gone from free mixtapes to a label deal. The Rio-born, Orlando-based rapper signed with Talib Kweli's Javotti Media after the two recorded a song together in 2013, and his debut album Brutus came out on Javotti in February 2015. Vamoose is on it, built on a beat by Thanks Joey that DJBooth called unconventional but still boom-bap. Around then Niko was also on The People's Champions tour with Kweli and Immortal Technique.

Chris Smith directed the video, with his company Smithhouse producing, and BroadwayWorld reported it debuting on MTV in early March. Nobody wrote much about what's in it, but everyone who did reached for the same idea. Okayplayer said tripped out. BroadwayWorld said colorful and mind-bending. DJBooth said considerably trippy, with imagery running from Himalayan mountain scenery to kids eating popsicles. Mountains and popsicles. For a song named after old slang for scram, that's a fine place to wander.

In my playlists

The Weirdness, Part 2 · #18

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