Under the cut you can read my theory as to why Tyler says “east is up” in the new Twenty Øne Piløts song Nico and the Niners. I hope you enjoy it!
Hey frends! I hope you’re having a wonderful week so far. First I’d like to thank all of you who followed me after I posted the study I did on Jumpsuit. I really appreciate the support and I’m super encouraged by your feedback and interest in learning how I think Twenty Øne Piløts songs are connected to Jesus. Today I’m going to be dissecting Nico and the Niners, personally I think that this song is more of a jab at the music industry and a way to set up the whole story of Clancy and Dema, but there are quite a few lyrics that point to Jesus and today we’re going to be looking at them.
The song starts with the new Clique chant “east is up!”, but why east? And why is east up? If you look at a compass or a map you’d know that east is clearly not up. But do you know what is up and rises to the east? The sun. Do you know who else is the sun? Jesus. Jesus is the Son of Man, Jesus even admitted that He is the Son of Man when He was on trial before He was nailed onto the cross to die for our sins. Mark 14:62 reads “"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." The next lyric of the song is “I’m fearless when I hear this on the low” to me this means that Tyler’s fearless when he’s around a body of believers, people that chant the same chant as he does and believes the same things he believes. Matthew 18:10 reads “For wherever two or three gather in My name I am there.” The next lyric of the song is “I’m careless when I wear my rebel clothes” Tyler’s “rebel clothes” is the armor of God or his Jumpsuit (if you want to read about why I think Tyler’s Jumpsuit is Jesus click here). Ephesians 6:10-18 reads “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,which is the word of God.” Tyler’s Jumpsuit protects him. It covers him in grace, love and fearlessness, with man this is impossible, but with Tyler’s Jumpsuit aka Jesus, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). Tyler’s Jumpsuit protects him, it guards him, just like it says in Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The next verse of the song to me is not so much about God as it is about the music industry, but that’s a story for a different day. We’re here to talk about Jesus. I want to look at the chorus with you guys right now, Tyler says “I'm heavy, my jumpsuit is on steady I'm lighter when I'm lower, I'm higher when I'm heavy, oh I'm so high, my jumpsuit takes me so high I'm flying from a fire, from Nico and the Niners”. To me “I’m heavy, my jumpsuit is on steady” means that Tyler is grounded in his faith and he’s confident in his relationship with Jesus. This lyric reminds me of Colossians 2:6-7 which says “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” In order to be grounded in the Lord, you need to be heavy with His word daily. You need to make the effort to have a relationship with Jesus and He will always accept your friendship. The next lyric is “I’m lighter when I’m lower”. To me this lyric means that in order to be saturated in Jesus and His word you need to lower yourself, 1 Peter 5:6 says “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.” and Matthew 19:30 reads “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” Both of these Bible verses talk about how in order to be close to Jesus you need to be humble, you can’t be prideful or think that you’re better than everyone else, but you need to realize that all of our sins are equal at the foot of the cross and all of our sin sent Jesus to die on that cross. In the next lyric Tyler says “I’m higher when I’m heavy” again, I think that this means in order to be higher or closer to God you need to be heavy or anchored in his word. Hebrews 6:17-19 says “ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,”.
The next part of the song is a rap that I believe describes what happens in the Heathens music video. In the Heathens video, Tyler is a prisoner and the rap in Nico and the Niners Tyler says “what a beautiful day for making a break for it”, like he’s breaking out of prison. Before Jesus we are all prisoners to sin, we’re caught in the chains, shame, guilt, fear and bondage of the world, but on the beautiful day that we decide to make Jesus Lord those chains are broken. Jesus is a chain breaker, in Psalm 107:4 it says “He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.” and in 1 Peter 2:9 it says “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” As followers of Jesus we are God’s special possession. How awesome is that? The creator of the universe loves you so much that you’re his special possession. The only other lyric in the rap that reminds me of Jesus is “we’ll win, but not everyone with get out” because even though the battle is won, not everyone will decided to follow Jesus and make it out of this world 1 Corinthians 9:24 says “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” The only one who gets the prize is the person that follows Jesus and trusts Him wholeheartedly. You don’t need to be perfect to win the prize, but you do have to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul (Matthew 22:37).
Thank you so much for reading this little study/devo/thingy I did on Nico and the Niners. Feel free to message me if you want to add anything or if you have any song requests. Also, the color for this era is yellow and what is yellow used to represent? Light. Who is the light of the world? Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." - John 8:12
Edit to add - I compeletly forgot to hit on the lyric “my Jumpsuit takes me so high, I’m flying from a fire, from Nico and the Niners.” To me this is a very clear reference to Jesus and how He pulls us out of the fire of hell. This lyric reminds me of the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31 because in order for Jesus to take you out of the fire you have to follow Him by humbling yourself and living the way He wants us to live. In this lifetime we all have to make the decision to follow Him, we need to make the choice to love Him so he can save us from the fire, from our Nico and the Niners.
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
WhatsApp may stop working in India in its current form if this new norm kicks in
WhatsApp may stop working in India in its current form if this new norm kicks in
New Delhi: Some of the proposed government regulations for social media companies operating in India are threatening the very existence of WhatsApp in its current form, a top company executive said here on Wednesday.
With over 200 million monthly active users, India is WhatsApp’s biggest market in the world. Globally, the platform has over 1.5 billion users.
