The hypertalented kids at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music are at it again. To promote Rihanna’s big single “Diamonds,” her label held a college video contest to score a chance for Rihanna to come to campus. Obviously NYU students decided to go one step further—a group of 14 Recorded Music (ReMu) majors recorded a huge cover of “Diamonds” that Buzzfeed just called “amazing.” (Fine, they call everything amazing, but—look, this is really good, okay?) The thing has racked up over 27,000 views since Saturday. Go watch.
ReMu junior Hannah Babitt coordinated the project via Facebook volunteers, and it took a month to get everything together with the ten vocalists, production, engineering, mixing/mastering—all of whom are in the notoriously selective program to pursue a career in the music industry. Babitt calls the project “in every way a group effort,” saying “NYU is a very collaborative campus, and we have a lot of talented people.” Engineer Alex Gresh is ”totally overwhelmed by the reaction,” saying “I hope that it creates some positive exposure for the talented people at ReMu.”
The video, directed by Ryan Hutchins, features ReMu students Kiah Victoria, Cari Fletcher, Rachel Kanner, Hannah Taylor, Sabrina Reitman, John Phillips, Terrell Kiser (Relly), Sonali Argade, and Lindsey Allen (Lozzy). The beat was produced by Ben Lindsay, engineered by Alex Gresh—he’s the guy in the video that Buzzfeed described as an “adorably nerdy synthpop DJ”—and mixed and mastered by Jason Moss. “This shit is crazy,” Lindsay said. “I had no idea this would happen.” A comment on the video asked happily, “Why is everyone at my school so talented? why?”








wow maybe now you guys will see there is more to clive than just topaz and cody williams.
this is incredible, also, everyone at NYU has at least one doppleganger
@emmaking, I’m pretty sure Topaz faceless-ly raps at the 3 minute mark. BUT if you think there is more talent at Clive, please please email us your songs or your friends’ songs at nyulocaleditor@gmail.com. We will listen to the music for the next Local Sounds.
Awesome! There is still hope for the entertainment industry! Keep up the great work!!!