What does "Nico And The Niners" by Twenty One Pilots mean?
“Nico And The Niners” Lyrics Meaning
(The following blog post is a transcript created by Xalma of the below video.)
Alright, Nico and the Niners is the second part of a three-part story; the story that tells us about the bad guys or The Bishops. I thought the music video for Jumpsuit was particularly glorious.
Nico and the Niners has a lot to say, and I want to jump into some of the imagery and the ideas here; and I think it is integrally connected to the story of Dema, the one we've been following on the dmaorg website; so basically, Clancy is this dude who lives in Dema, which means Towers of Silence, it's ruled by nine “benevolent” but sometimes jerk bishops. People aren't allowed to leave, and there is like a super high wall.
And so, some of the stuff we've seen on the website; Clancy escapes, and he gets free; and it seems that because of some torches and a tunnel, that he did it by going underground, while creating a diversion elsewhere, and we see some references to that in the lyrics of this song.
The reason I think this whole thing is going to be a rock opera is because this song doesn't really touch on specific mental struggles, like Tyler Joseph's music usually does; but it tells a story, it really does. So, let's look at some of these; At first we hear:
Hook
East is up
I'm fearless when I hear this on the low
East is up
I'm careless when I wear my rebel clothes
East is up
When Bishops come together they will know that
Dema don't control us, Dema don't control
East is up
The bishops obviously are the enemies, Dema is trying to control people, and the people in Dema are not like slaves necessarily, or at least they aren't supposed to be slaves; but it's kind of black and white in Dema, and there's not a lot of joy or happiness. The colour yellow scares the bishops as we saw in the music video for “Jumpsuit”; and the colour red seems to be their main colour. And the colour black is representative of how they control people.
Chorus
East is up
I'm fearless when I hear this on the low
I think it's kind of a pass code for people who are going to be trying to escape; it's probably like people go to each other and they say "East is up"; and if you aren't one of the people who are trying to escape, you won't know what it means. But if you are you're like "Yeah. East is up!"; and so you both know, like “we're on the same side”, “we're trying to escape”.
East is up
I'm careless when I wear my rebel clothes
Which could be a reference to the jacket with the yellow on it; and I'm pretty sure that whatever it is, the colour yellow is heavily connected to the rebel clothes.
When Bishops come together they will know that
Dema don't control us,
Dema don't control
East is up
They are going to get out!
I want to mention that I think that the bishops are kind of like “anti-virtues”, and there's nine of them; and I don't exactly know what kind of virtues they're connected with; but it seems that Tyler struggles particularly with Nico, because the song “Nico and the Niners”; and probably the bishops are the same as Blurryface in the “Jumpsuit” music video.
And my theory is, that each bishop represents some sort of "Deadly Sin", sort of; and I don't think there are nine deadly sins, I think there are seven deadly sins; but I’d say that the one that Tyler struggles with the most is maybe fear or sorrow, or something like that; you know, whatever Blurryface made insecurity. Insecurity and fear; And so I think that maybe Blurryface or Nico represents that one.
And we'll have to see what else happens here; but I think that Clancy said that some other bishop was his particular bishop; it was Keons, right? So maybe Keons is the Blurryface who came to get him in the “Jumpsuit” music video, if Tyler was portraying Clancy; but now we're talking more about Nico; and I think he’s the leader of the bishops.
It would be pretty cool if each one of them represents some sort of different thing that humans have to struggle with; and because each of the names of the bishops is related to one of the songs from Blurryface, it could be that the thing that “that song” from Blurryface is about connects with what each bishop is connected to; but more research needs to be done there.
So we get into verse one and he says:
Verse One
They want to make you forget
They want to make you forget
Forget about the good times, forget about the fact that you're not allowed to leave.
Save your razor blades now, not yet
Save your razor blades now, not yet
And razor blades can either be used to like, cut wrists, or to commit suicide; but they can also be used as weapons. People will use razor blades to try to feel something, they cut themselves so that they can feel at least something; maybe when they're depressed, suicidal, or something like that. So I think Tyler is saying “Don't do that; don't use them to attack just yet; there's hope still, and we can make it out”.
Chorus
I'm heavy, my Jumpsuit is on steady
I'm lighter when I'm lower, I'm higher when I'm heavy, oh
And I think going lower probably refers to going into the tunnels to try and escape. I wonder if maybe his rebel clothes aren't hidden underneath his jumpsuit. It's either a good thing or it’s a bad thing, right? So it could be something that is not uncommon to see in Dema and so it helps him to stay disguised as a rebel, but it could also be something that helps him to kind of fight the insecurities; and you know how he uses music as a means to fight fear and insecurities; it's not the solution; but it's like the beginning of meaning. The Jumpsuit could be a tactic that he uses to fight against the Blurryface inside his head.
So he continues to say:
I'm so high, my Jumpsuit takes me so high
I'm flying from a fire, from Nico and the Niners, oh
And that sounds like it's about escaping Dema, and that his jumpsuit gives him the kind of control, or the ability to break through, initially.
And then he goes to the second verse, and he says:
Verse Two
What I say when I want to be enough
What a beautiful day for making a break for it
This is the escape that Tyler or Clancy makes.
We'll find a way to pay for it
Maybe from all the money we made razorblade stores
Rent a race horse and force a sponsor
And start a concert, a complete diversion
That's the diversion that Clancy was talking about; he says that he calls it a concert. The diversion happens somewhere in there; I think we'll learn more about it as the music goes on. I think the diversion has already happened at this point, because Clancy did escape, right?
Start a mob and you can be quite certain
We'll win but not everyone will get out
No, no
We'll win but not everyone will get out
No, no
We'll win but not everyone will get out
And that is a sobering fact; because a lot of people are going to struggle with things in Tyler's audience. I think that he connects with them a lot, because he talks about some of the things that he struggles with; and he knows that while he'll be able to bring help to some people, not everyone is going to escape that; and this could be a reference to those who actually do commit suicide, the ones who can't escape the clutches of depression, or of Nico and the Niners.
Outro for “Nico And The Niners” by Twenty One Pilots
So essentially a very sobering song; but one that also begins to talk about that moment of escape, and talks about that connection that people have.
This song really seems to be about the skeleton clique in a lot of different ways, or about people who appreciate the music, and who share similar struggles to what Tyler has. In a sense it would seem like we're all stuck in Dema with Clancy, Tyler, and we are all trying to get out and escape our own bishops.
And so, this was the explanation for Nico And The Niners, the second part of the three-part story; Next, we will have Levitate, the last part of this story from Trench.
Part one was Jumpsuit, so if you haven’t read about it in the previous post, you can check it out in the link down below:
