It was no Beyoncé references, like, “We want this song to sound like a Lemonade ” - none of that. Watching the show, it’s pretty obvious that Ni'Jah's the stand-in for a Beyoncé figure. I went in blindly, but also with complete freedom of what we wanted her to say, what we wanted her to feel like. I think that's why we were able to get some authentic songs for her, because they weren't trying to make her be anything. Let me just do the top line.” So I went in as an artist. Ni’Jah can't say this.” We would just choose the music and be like, “All right, I rock with this. They didn't tell me, “Ni’Jah has to be this way. I kept questioning, “Do I have this much freedom? Are you guys sure I can just write what I want to write? I can become the character?” I think that was why it was so much fun, because it wasn't a lot of pressure. I just remember watching it in the studio and they were like, “All right, here's the temp music, but we kind of need something that's going to work for this.” Michael would just have these really fire beats that were fun. They would say, “Hey, we need a song for the scene when she's mopping up the blood,” I haven't even seen that episode. 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. For nearly all of Swarm, the show’s mega superstar Ni’Jah stays off screen.
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