When crafting the guest list for his recent album Soul & Science, it was a no-brainer that veteran DJ and producer Nickodemus enlist fellow New Yorkers The Illustrious Blacks due to the success of their 2017 collaborative single “Funk That.” “Inspired by the song ‘Plastico’ by Rubén Blades and Willie Colón, I came up with a jammin’ Latin disco groove and thought of them right away,” the producer shared of what would soon become “Plastic (A Bigger Name).” “The next day they came in the studio and recited that first chorus and I thought, ‘This is so serendipitous that they referenced ‘Plastic’ in the lyrics without even knowing the original song I was inspired by.”
It was even more fortuitous that the recording’s vibrant array of genre influences fit so tightly within Soul & Science’s packed list of collaborators, blending sounds familiar to hip-hop, electronic music, and disco with the regional music of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Yet with “Plastic” sounding particularly like NYC’s historic voguing underground nightlife scene, the city felt like a proper focus for the song’s newly unveiled music video.
From the brightly lit city streets to the dank club stage, take the journey with Nickodemus and The Illustrious Blacks below, and check out the LP here if you haven’t already.
