Nico and the Niners

"Nico and the Niners" is a reggae, rap, rock and psychedelic song with a length of three minutes and forty-seven seconds.^[5][6] It features a rap verse, some vocal audio clips played backwards and a section with a reversed drum beat. Additionally, there are sections using a vocoder effect on clips of the vocals.^[7] It was the first song to be completed off Trench.^[8] The song is played in an A minor key, and at 140 beats per minute.^[9]

A music video for "Nico and the Niners" was released on July 26, 2018.^[10] It was directed by Andrew Donoho, who had directed all the music videos from the Trench trilogy, and was filmed in Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukraine.^[11]

The video shows singer Tyler Joseph packing a backpack and meeting drummer Josh Dun in a faded city (known as Dema) square, where they shake hands before joining a group of torch-wielding rebels (called the "Banditos") and perform the song. The video veers between that mysterious thread and the mystical activities of mysterious red-hooded robed figures (also known as the bishops). At the end of the video, two children discover a Bandito's lost gear, but turn to see the nine bishops, the leaders of Dema, walking towards them.^[10]

"Nico and the Niners" made its debut on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at No. 6 and Hot Rock Songs at No. 9 with 19,000 sold.^[12] The song peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at No. 7 on the Hot Rock Songs chart. The song also peaked at No. 88 on the UK Singles Chart.

• Tyler Joseph – lead vocals, keyboards, bass, synthesizers, guitar, programming, ukulele, production, songwriting
• Josh Dun – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Adam Hawkins – mixing