If you’ve seen the premiere of rising Atlanta rapper Dice Black’s new music video for his summer anthem, “Glitter & Grit,” you probably have one question: Who is that girl in the pink bucket hat?
Her name is Naomi. And for the four days she spent on set, she was the undisputed star of the background.
“I just started bouncing,” she admits, laughing. “The bass was so thumpy! I looked at the guy next to me, who was trying to look like a bodyguard, and I was like, ‘Are you not having fun right now?’ He did not smile.” Naomi - Bubbly Girl Excited To Be In A Rap Video
“I learned that you can be yourself anywhere,” she says, adjusting that pink bucket hat. “Even if ‘yourself’ is just a really bouncy person standing next to a Lamborghini.”
Director James “J.D.” Delaney almost cut the cameras. He wanted grit. He wanted street. He got a human golden retriever in platform sneakers. If you’ve seen the premiere of rising Atlanta
“Oh my god, do you think they’ll let me be in a drill video next? I have a really good stomp.”
Naomi, a 22-year-old part-time yoga instructor and full-time optimist from Tampa, had never been in a music video before. In fact, she had only been to one club in her entire life (for a friend’s birthday, she left at 10 PM because she was tired). The video was shot in a converted warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. The concept was "luxury heist": expensive cars, a fog machine that never turned off, and a lot of serious faces. “I just started bouncing,” she admits, laughing
“I just love the energy of it,” Naomi said in an exclusive interview, still buzzing from the craft services table (she drank three Red Bulls). “I’ve been watching rap videos since I was a kid. The cars, the lights, the dancing—it’s all just so... shiny!” Casting directors had put out a call for “talent to bring high energy.” They got the usual parade of stoic models and wannabe influencers. Then Naomi walked in.
Somewhere, a casting director just got a migraine.
“She was literally bouncing off the walls of the waiting room,” recalls casting agent Marcus T. “She brought her own boombox and was playing Lizzo to warm up. We knew immediately—we needed that chaos.”