Black And Gold
Vanderbilt’s got a new anthem.
First-year student (and Vanderbilt Melodore) Nick Wells remixed and remade the recent Whiz Kalifa hit “Black and Yellow” into what I predict will be a Vandy classic: “Black and Gold.”
With the videography and direction help of Vanderbilt alum Shane Stever and Vandy junior Brandon Goodman (BOTH MELODORES), Nick’s excellent song became an excellent song with excellent video. I had the opportunity to talk with Nick about the process. When asked about the inspiration for the remix, Nick responded:
” My inspiration from the song came from two places. The first was that my friend Josh, who is a rapper at Northwestern, made a song about his school. Also, we have the Vandy Van song, but I just felt that another song would be good to have, essentially offering two different perspectives. I love the Vandy Vans song- it’s really catchy, but I just wanted to give a different perspective on campus life, and “Black and Gold” came from that. I had a beat that I was getting ready to write to, but I remembered that they play Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” during the basketball games, so I thought I should just remix that song. It provided me with a basic melodic and lyrical structure, so all I had to do there was make the song fit to what I wanted.”
As for the filming process, “it was an intense experience…and it was probably the most official ‘film’ project [he’d] ever done. We started at 8 am sharp and went ’til 1:30 pm, so 5 and a half hours was definitely exhausting, but also very rewarding.” When asked about his favorite part of the video shoot, Nick said that being on the roof of Alumni Hall and doing the moving shots in Kirkland circle (which look ridiculously cool) were the best.
As a follow-up to the momentum from “Black and Gold,” Nick has several songs ready to release in the coming weeks. I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting every one.
Thanks for keeping it classy, Nick!