Reggie Couz is a Vine OG, but if you weren’t around when Vine was a thing, you might’ve only just discovered him.
The New Jersey native has been posting since at least 2013, sharing music-related comedy skits to a steady-growing following. His videos featured him portraying characters like a choir instructor remixing hip-hop songs or an uncle going all out to his fave tracks in the car. Things were going well and Reggie was finding success, but when Vine died in 2017, he felt lost on the internet. That was until he found a home on Instagram and TikTok.
Now, the LA-based internet personality boasts a current combined total of 4.5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. One of his most popular videos on both platforms is from May: His Unc character sings Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” in the most over-the-top way possible while the real Reggie just can’t wait to drop Unc off at wherever he needs to go. It’s a perfect example of his content: a strong vocal performance with a relatable character that makes you both stop to listen to the music and laugh at the comedic skit.
Complex caught up with the content creator to talk about his Vine past, how he created his super-popular Unc persona, the languages he knows and his favorite language to sing in, and what it’s like being rediscovered by a new generation of internet consumers.
(This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity.)
You said you were messing around with chatGPT, working on some content ideas. What ideas has the tech given you so far?
Reggie Couz: Well, I've been actually just looking at the different ways to promote what I'm trying to do as far as doing branded content, also trying to figure out how to do certain prompts for me to get better content ideas and just kind of understanding how to use the tool. I think most of the internet is just figuring out the evolution of what's happening and trying to implement it in real current use cases. So for what I do, especially doing content for the last 10+ years, I noticed myself getting burnt out or experiencing writer's block as far as trying to figure out different ways to see what's going on in the world. It's one of the ways that I use chatGPT, too, asking it what's trending right now and the technology is seemingly really good at doing that.
You said you were creating content for 10 years. So tell me about what you were doing previously and how you landed on “Unc.”
RC: I guess we should go back to my college days. I was going to a performing arts school. The school doesn't exist anymore. I believe it's the University of the Arts, but I've always wanted to be a musician; I wanted to sing. I studied classical music in seven different languages, reading sheet music, all that stuff. I couldn't go to the school anymore because of the money situation, so I went to an in-state school, but I also just didn't like the music program there.
So I already knew that maybe this wasn't a particularly good situation for me. In the process of that summer, though, I found an app called Vine. It was out for maybe a year or so, but it didn't really have a direction as far as apps goes. I guess the concept of it was they wanted to use it for six-second flicks like Snapchat, but it kind of turned into making comedy skits and little snippets of you doing music covers—stuff like that. Once I got on the platform, it was super new. But as I was watching other people that were already on the app—super throwback names like Eric Dunn, King Bach, people like that—it sparked a lightbulb in my head.
So I just kept shooting a bunch of videos and slowly started creating characters out of what I was building. I went on Amazon, I got a few mustaches, got some wigs, got some outfits, and I came up with the Dad character. Then I came up with Mr. Johnson's concert choir where I remixed hip-hop songs that already existed but made them into choir versions. I later landed on this Unc character. When I first started, the video was when the radio in your uncle’s car is broken and all he has to entertain you is just singing in the car. And that was really the birth, and out of all of the characters, Unc has lasted throughout time.
Do you do any vocal practices to maintain those vocals without straining your voice?
RC: Absolutely always, especially when I do my Unc videos. I think now you're giving me an idea, [chuckles] I like that. I guess people would like to see that, but I do warm up. I think that's very important as far as it is just like a muscle, like anything else. But I also make sure I exercise. That's very important too, and I run a lot to make sure my breathing and my control is good. I'm always hydrated and things of that sort. But these are all things that I've learned.
Before we move on to Unc, you mentioned learning and singing in several languages. How many languages do you know, and how many languages can you sing in?
RC: So I've sung in Italian, German, and French, but all of them have a different style that requires you to shift. It's almost like going from country music to R&B. Do they have similarities? Yes. Do they have similar tones? Probably not. What a country song provides is different from what you’d need for an R&B song. So it's almost like understanding your environment and what's required as far as what people are looking for. It’s understanding their culture.
Do you have a favorite language to sing in?
RC: My favorite? I like German. It's very fast and the words are challenging. It has a lot of different registers you have to get to at a fast pace. So I would say German because of how much it challenges me vocally, and I like things that are challenging.
Talking about Unc, he be going crazy. How would you describe him?
RC: Everybody is Unc in a way. I think that's why people relate to it so much because when you’re in the car, you think you sound good, you’re hitting some of the notes, but you’re also not and who cares? It's the excitement of the song that makes everybody Unc.
What has that reception been? Did you always think that it was going to blow up this way?
RC: When I started, it was the Wild Wild West. I can admire the YouTube guys that even were before me because it was just such an abstract thought. We usually get our entertainment from TV, and so just the thought of people making their own content was unheard of.
Me in particular, I like to give people a good idea, a good concept. And sometimes it does take me about four to five days to come up with something that's good enough to put out. I'm just very conscious of that and by everybody using my sounds, I think I'm an OG to say that even when they don't tag me, people are in the comments being like, ‘This is Reggie's song. This is Reggie. Why are you taking Reggie’s song?’ You can't escape it. Every time somebody reposts or remixes my content, I think that's a testament of how long I've been doing this.
You were talking about how it takes about four to five days to come up with a video concept, put it together, and put it up. How do you decide the song you're going to sing, and what is that process from the ideation to the filming to the published video?
It’s usually a popular song, and even if it's not, I will choose a song that either a lot of people are doing TikToks to as far as dancing. I actually check how hot the song is doing on Billboard. If it's in the top five or even the top 10, I'll be like, ‘Okay, people are really rocking to this song.’ After that, I’d find parts in the song where I could shine; maybe I could come in on a harmony or something like that. I rehearse it before I even get in the car, so most of it is just being prepped. There has been a couple of times where I just go into the car and wing it, but I almost always resort back to rehearsing.
I also like to do my videos in one take if I can so I don't have to cut it up and edit it. The “Million Dollar Baby” video was like that. I think personally part of why it's so good is because it was in a higher register, the runs were flawless, and it was one take. Then, once I posted the behind-the-scenes video, it gave people pause. So, the breakdown is like: find a popular song, rehearse it, discover different harmonies and pockets where Unc can sound good, get in the car, and maybe do 10 to 15 takes. I’ll take the best one, go to my computer, put the song overlay in, add a voice enhancer to make Unc a little bit louder than the vocal track, post, and see how it goes.
Do you have a favorite Unc video?
RC: I've done so many. I would say The Temptation's "Silent Night." I've done that maybe five or six years ago, but that in particular was really difficult for me to do because the person that was singing it was already at a higher register, so I had to sing higher than him. I would say that another one of my favorites is "24K Magic," and I would say most recent, of course, is "Million Dollar Baby." That was the video that kind of rediscovered me in a way into a whole new audience. So I can't not put that in my top five of my uncle videos.
That “Million Dollar Baby” video is definitely one of my favorites.
RC: That's definitely a newer one, That's one where people distinguish me as, ‘Oh, you did”‘Million Dollar Baby.”’ Yeah, that's me.