- Do you like your current,
like the first picture that shows up?
- Nah.
- I don't know how those work, but they're never flattering.
Never. - Nah.
- Hey, I'm NIKI.
- I'm Rich Brian.
- And today we're doing the "WIRED Autocomplete Interview."
- Yes, we are.
[upbeat music]
- I'm learning a lot about you, by the way.
- Really?
- Apparently. - Nice.
- What happened to Rich Brian?
[both laugh]
- What happened to me?
Honestly I've been here for five years now.
I mean, I've been making music music.
[both laugh]
- He just started making music.
- No.
What I meant to say was I make music and I go out
with friends and like do regular--
- Was that not the, like norm.
- At the time, no.
I feel like back then, I really like,
I focused on music and just ignored everything else and--
- So, you've learned to like chill?
- Yeah. I've learned to chill, balance it out.
You know, not getting burnt out.
- That's great.
- I'm doing good man.
Taking my sweet time.
- What is,
drive safe by - Drive safe by
Rich Brian about? - Rich Brian about?
What I was thinking when I was making the song was,
talking to someone that you,
that I love and being like, "Hey, drive safe, be safe.
I love you."
Sometimes I feel like, you know,
you talk to people and you kind of take your conversations
for granted.
You say certain things that you can't take back
and you know, you regret it.
And when it's too late,
you can't really say anything to them.
But I feel like this song is about just appreciating
the moments that you have with people,
which I think is important.
- You're really like digging deep today.
These are very poignant answers.
- [laughs] Thank you.
- What, I'm sorry about that.
What nationality is Rich Brian?
- I am Indonesian and I grew up in Indonesia.
Yeah, Jakarta.
- What language does Rich Brian speak?
- I speak Indonesian and English.
English is my second language.
I didn't really start speaking English to other people until
I was like 12 having American friends and like talking to
them on Skype.
So, I speak both languages.
- Okay.
- Where is NIKI from?
- I am from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Born and raised.
Homegrown.
- Where does NIKI shop?
[both laugh]
- Hmm.
Good question.
Online or like in real life?
- Aah, both.
- I'll answer both.
In real life, you'll likely find me at Whole Foods.
- Okay.
Okay.
I was thinking of like clothing more.
- Etsy.
- Okay.
- Where does NIKI
go to high school? - Go to high school?
[both laugh]
- First of all, I'm no longer in high school, I graduated.
I'm 22 years old, even though I may not look it.
Next one.
- Where is NIKI now?
- Los Angeles, California baby.
Does Rich Brian actually ice skate?
[both exclaim]
- No.
- Wait, is this like one of your like,
longest standing like music video secrets?
- Honestly, no.
I mean I don't--
- Have you ever said that that wasn't you?
- No.
No.
I don't think I have--
- Now you know,
- Yeah, exclusively on WIRED.
[NIKI murmurs]
- Does Rich Brian,
[paper rattling]
speak Chinese?
- I wish I spoke Chinese,
but I didn't.
- Does Rich Brian, have siblings?
- I have three siblings.
I'm the youngest out of four.
- Does Rich Brian have tattoos?
- I do.
A few months ago, I impulsively made a decision
to get two tattoos.
One right here.
If you see it in the mirror it says manifest.
And this one right here, it's just like three dots.
- Does Rich Brian have a driver's license?
- Oh my God!
- I feel like this is your universal sign
that you need to go get a driver's license.
- Yes.
Honestly though, when I was in Indonesia,
I got to a point, I took driving lessons
and I was able to like drive around my neighborhood
and stuff.
- That's cool.
That's something.
- Yeah.
But in America I feel like it's a whole different ball game.
- There' re rules.
- Yeah. Yeah.
[both laugh]
- Oh, respect me, okay?
- Okay.
Does NIKI have siblings?
- Yes,
I do have siblings.
I have two brothers.
I have one and he is turning 10 this year
and I have another one, he just turned one.
Does NIKI drive? - Does NIKI drive?
- So, I just started driving I'm a very new driver.
And yesterday, literally yesterday I drove to Target
by myself with plenty of left turns,
diagonal parking all by myself.
Does NIKI have pets?
Yes, I do.
And if you meet me, I will literally only talk about my dog,
her name's Lucy.
- Okay.
Next one.
- Does NIKI have Merch?
Yes, I do.
niki.store.
- Does NIKI play any instruments?
- Yes.
I do.
I play guitar and I play piano.
And once upon a time I played ukulele.
I can still play it,
but I just stopped playing ukulele, but I can still do it.
- Yeah.
- And then once upon a time I played banjo.
Like I kinda taught myself how to play a banjo.
- Really?
- I touched it for maybe like two days,
- Yeah.
- And I like figured out how to play like one chord.
So there you go.
- There you go.
Does NIKI write her own songs?
- No, just kidding.
[both laugh]
- Yeah, I write all her songs.
- He's my ghost writer.
No. Yeah.
I do write my own songs.
Kind of very particular about it.
So.
- All right.
- Rich Brian, best songs. - Rich Brian best songs.
I really like Cold.
I feel like Cold, - That's a good one.
- I'm really proud of it.
Yeah.
'Cause I feel like
it doesn't have a hook or a chorus.
It's just like kind of unconventional.
And it turned out to be like one of the biggest songs
for my first album.
I like History.
History was cool.
- History was a good one.
- Yeah, like--
[NIKI vocalizes]
So I was like watching a video on like an Airsoft Gun review
and in the intro they had that song play, you know?
And at that point I already had this idea for like a chorus.
- Wait, so you're saying you sampled
the beginning of that video.
- I didn't sample it.
I re--
- You recreated it?
- I recreated it.
- Got it.
- Rich Brian education.
- I was homeschooled since the second year of elementary.
My mom had a really like, interesting way of teaching me
things like, she wanted to teach me science like firsthand.
So, she would like take me and my brother on like walks
to like, go see like plants and stuff.
And she's like--
- That's cute.
- Yeah, I think that was really fun.
It was very much like DIY.
- Rich Brian first song. - First song?
I rapped on this MF DOOM beat
and I recorded it on my iPhone and I mixed it
on Sony Vegas, which is a video editing program.
And then I uploaded it on SoundCloud
and the picture was a Photoshop picture
of me and Tyler, The Creator.
And I was wearing a shirt that says,
"Earl Sweatshirt, isn't better."
I posted it and you know, people seemed to kinda like it,
even though I kinda did it as a joke.
And then now I was like, "Okay,
I wanna make more songs and put them out on SoundCloud."
- Nice.
Rich Brian, latest song. - Latest song.
California.
It was me and NIKI and Warren,
all three of us just came together and you know, did
the old Avengers and just made the song.
- Okay.
Rich Brian, Ooh, MBTI.
- Is that the one with like the--
- Like INFJ, ENFJ.
- I have no any idea what I am actually.
I did it a long time ago, but I forgot--
- If I were to guess, not that I know have any knowledge
on this by the way, I feel like you'd be like,
I,
S,
T,
J.
It's like--
- Can you explain that
- Introverted,
sensing, thinking,
judging.
- Sounds like me.
- Rich Brian,
next album. - Next album.
Okay.
I don't know.
I don't know when it's coming.
Making The Sailor was such a process, you know,
that was like an entire like year and a half of just like
being in the studio and like really thinking hard on like,
okay, for this song, the visual needs to be this
because it fits like this story.
And like, I feel like now I kinda wanna just be like free.
I might put out like a little mini project or you know,
singles here and there and features and all that.
But albums,
I'll take my time on that.
I want it to be good.
What is NIKI's short for? - What is NIKI short for?
What you short for like? [ Rich Brian chuckles]
- Yeah. It's just,
it's always been a dream to just be short and like,
not be able to reach anything like in the grocery store.
It's really cool.
It's a great life.
What is NIKI's Zodiac sign? - Zodiac sign?
Do you know this?
- I think you're a
January 24th.
So that's,
- It starts with an A
- You're an Aries.
No. - No.
- Aquarius.
Yeah, you are an Aquarius.
- I'm an Aquarius.
- What is NIKI's favorite color?
- Aah!
I hate this question.
Like it literally changes every other month.
So, you know what recent color that I really like,
like a sage green,
like I got a sage green throw pillow recently against like
my, like a cream couch, like a neutral couch.
Do it.
I promise you, it's beautiful.
What song - What song
did NIKI sing in - Sing in
[paper rattling]
Raya and the Last Dragon?
- And the Last Dragon?
- What if it wasn't dragon?
- I don't know yet.
- It was Warpaint the Henry Fong Remix.
- Why was Rich Brian,
crying?
[both laugh]
Okay, wait, wait, wait,
I'm assuming that they're referring to the Lose video.
- I cried multiple times.
That one and then there's like a selfie of me crying.
That's like pretty,
- Ooh ooh, you did this one?
- Yeah.
[NIKI exclaims and laughs]
Why was I crying in the Lose video?
It's because the song was so good.
I was trying my best to sing along, but you know,
the lyrics just like really struck me so hard that I was,
I couldn't hold the tears back.
- Right.
- As for the selfie,
the crying selfie, I was on tour and I got sick,
which like made me cough a lot.
And sometimes I would have like cough attacks where I just
couldn't stop coughing and I would just like start crying.
And I was like, you know what?
This is a perfect time to take a picture of myself.
- And it went viral.
- Yeah, people still use it.
- Okay.
Why is Rich Brian,
so famous?
- I mean, I make stuff, you know, I make music.
I make,
- You're blessed.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Honestly, no that's the number one,
that's a great answer, I'm blessed.
When I was 15, I started this thing where I pray
just to simply say thank you, for like the simple things.
- Right.
- And I swear, since I started doing that
my life was just like, [Rich Brian upward whistles]
- It's always good to be grateful for, like everything.
- Yeah. - You know? Yeah.
So, that's why I'm famous.
[both laugh]
- There you go.
[wooden board clattering]
And that is all.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
- Thank you so much for googling us and have a great day.
- Stay safe.