What did they tell you about the character Ni'Jah, and what did you know about the show? I think what made me really want to do it is just Michael and Fam are just really great people to work with, and I was like, “Okay, if we can have this much fun in a studio session, I don't care what we're working on.” He's the homie from way back, and he just dropped my name in a room with Fam, and was like, “You guys need a girl that can sing, and also do a little rapping.” He ended up texting me, like, “Kirby, I got this show I think you would be dope for.” I just went into it very blindly. I have to give all credit to Michael, who produced and did the score. How did you get involved with Swarm and become the voice of Ni'Jah? This interview has been edited for length and clarity. “She's saying crazy shit.”īelow, NYLON caught up with KIRBY to chat about how exactly she brought the fictional pop star’s catalog to life, why she was explicitly told to not emulate Beyoncé, and how a show about and starring Black women kept the same energy behind-the-scenes. “I just need to think, who's this girl that can sing? But also it's like, she's got bars,” Kirby tells NYLON of finding the voice for Ni’Jah. It’s her voice that’s ostensibly magical and powerful enough to compel Dre into committing some truly heinous deeds. It’s her voice we hear on the soulful, cosmopolitan, and swaggering original songs which help fill in the gaps of Ni’Jah’s place and presence in Swarm’s fictional world. Brown ( Ruthless, Sprinter), but her voice comes from veteran songwriter and singer KIRBY, who’s written for real-life mega stars Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and yes, Beyoncé. On the show, the fictional superstar is played by actress Nirine S. This isn’t too surprising Swarm, co-created and co-written by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, is mostly about Dre, and the deadly parasocial relationship she forms around her beloved idol. Much like her real-world counterpart, Ni’Jah is simultaneously ubiquitous and not everywhere and also nowhere. Viewers hear errant out-in-the-wild blasts of it from passing cars, through the isolating headphones of protagonist Dominique Fishback’s Dre, buzzed from the television speakers as a newly released “Festival” music video plays on the screen. The fictional singer - whose massive pop cultural influence looms over the series and is not-so-subtly hinted to be a stand-in for Beyoncé - is instead seen, or rather heard, through her music. It’s essentially become a staple, well-playlisted track that isn’t skipped by many on the platform, and I think it’s now firmly attained its place as a new GP-favourite in her repertoire that she probably hasn’t really added to in a decade.For nearly all of Swarm, the show’s mega superstar Ni’Jah stays off screen. I can’t remember the last time I saw it not in the rough range of 1.5-2 million streams per day on Spotify, hence why it’s sticking around so much (the remix is also doing some good supporting numbers). However, what is also notable is its absolute refusal to budge whatsoever. To my memory, I think it only really peaked around 3-3.5 for a short period, so it’s never really been able to clock up the huge numbers you see once you’re breaking around 5 million per day for a consistent period. Click to expand.It’s undeniable that a sizeable amount of the success of ‘Cuff It’ has involved its strong support at radio and also in sales, but it’s worth noting that it never really had the same ‘peaks’ in streams that other massive hits over the past year have had (usually seen in the +5 million region for daily Spotify streams).
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