Since 2014, Nick Kosir has been known as Charlotte’s meteorologist featured on FOX 46 whose dance moves and style impressionist’s “Drip Chronicles” has garnered him over 1.2 million Instagram followers and a cameo appearance on the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. This Cleveland native is proving that the weather reporting does not have to be boring. It can be informative, entertaining, and socially interactive!
According to Kosir, his colorful career path began as a news reporter “at a small television station in Ohio. I spent a year covering City Council meetings and fundraisers before my boss told me what I already knew – reporting wasn’t my strong suit. He asked me to fill in for the weather forecaster, and in those two days were all I needed to know that I belonged at the green screen. Shortly after, I moved into a full-time forecasting position at the station and enrolled at Mississippi State University, where I pursued a second degree in Meteorology. In October of 2008, I made my way to Beaumont, Texas, as a morning meteorologist on KBTV ‘Good Day.’ It was there that my passion for entertaining and forecasting combined. I rapped my first forecast in July of 2009 in an effort to spice up a monotonous Southeast Texas weather pattern. My performance became an instant YouTube sensation and I’ve been rapping the weather ever since! After a three year stint at KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho I now reside in Charlotte with my wife and son.”
In 2017, Charlotte’s FOX 46 encouraged its on-air personalities to increase their media presence by using their social media platforms. Therefore, Kosir needed new content for his followers to “like” and “share”. One day, he was inspired to personally choreograph and perform his version for the song “Slide Like This Krewlibs, Pt. 2” by Mr. Hotspot, as part of the dance challenge. Kosir stated, “I saw that ‘Slide Like This challenge’ pop up in an ad for TikTok (an app for creating and sharing short videos), and I could not stop watching it… I was just like, ‘This is unbelievable.’ And I go, ‘I can do this.’ Or at least, I thought, I wouldn’t be terrible at it.” Kosir made his dance video and posted it for the entire world to see. People were fascinated to see a local weatherman killing the viral dance challenge. In fact, World Star Hip Hop and The Shade Room has reposted his performance of the “Slide Like This” challenge on their social media pages and shared it with its millions of followers.
Given his viral success, some people have criticized Kosir of cultural appropriation. … (Continued)
Cultural appropriation, at times also phrased cultural misappropriation, is the adoption of elements of one culture by members of another culture. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from disadvantaged minority cultures and are able to capitalize off of a culture through systems that do not largely affect or benefit them.
However, Kosir shared with Level21 TV host Yamaris when ask about the term; “I have always like hip hop since I can remember, since the MC Hammer days. I have always been drawn to it..( Cultural appropriation ) is term that I just come to learn. I invite those comments. I think it starts a good dialogue. I think that if you can talk about something, you can at least gain some head way. I try to do everything that I do… in not a mocking way. I never want to be disrespectful. I always want to be authentic.”
Nick Kosir’s dance moves has afforded him the opportunity to become a viral sensation. His amazing moves featured in the “Slide Like This” challenge has been viewed over 6 million times. Recently, Nick’s fancy footwork caught the attention of Grammy award winner, Lil Nas X. In fact, Nick was included in a cameo for Lil Nas X’s 2019 “MTV Video Music Awards (VMA)” performance. Prior to the VMAs, Nick explains Lil Nas X, “took my last dance, the Lottery Challenge, and edited it with his song ‘Panini’ over the video, and I saw that he shared it on his Instagram. Obviously, that really got my attention because he’s right now, like, the biggest artist on the globe. So just taking a shot in the dark, I commented under his post, ‘Hey, thanks for sharing. Would you like to come on Good Day Charlotte?’ He responded back and said, ‘Where and when?’ I couldn’t believe it. I told him I would DM him with some more info, and I did.” However, he did not receive a response from the rapper for six weeks. As a luck would have it, Nick went on to say that, “I got an email that said, ‘Nick Kosir / Lil Nas X / VMAs’ in the subject. And I thought, What the heck is this? And I read it, and it was his manager reaching out to me for an idea they wanted to do for the VMAs. And I thought at first maybe it was spam or junk, or maybe it was some kind of virus. … Turns out it wasn’t a virus, or a fake email — it was the real deal. Long story short, three days later, they booked a flight for me to go to LA. Lil Nas said (my performance), ‘went hard’ — those were his exact quotes when he saw the video…So that was good.”
In addition to his dance moves, Nick also shows off his fashion style, by recreating outfits of the day of various celebrities and athletes such as Carolina Panther’s quarterback, Cam Newton, with his “Drip Chronicles”. Urban Dictionary defines, the term, “drip”, as “immense swag”. One day, Nick needed some fresh inspiration for his social media posts and he ran across Newton’s pics of his daily fashion swag. As a stroke of genius, Nick recreated the same look as the quarterback and posted a side-by-side post of his “do it yourself (DIY)” version of Newton’s outfit. His hilariously innovative fashion creations, even had Newton commenting on one of Nick’s photos with, “Why has no one told me about this? I’m literally laughing.” Nick’s “Drip Chronicles” include up-cycled DIY creations based on images of DaBaby, Justin Bieber, and Steph Curry, just to name a few! Fun fact, he often goes to thrift shops and raids his wife’s jewelry collection to bring the Drip Chronicles to life. “It’s 50 percent shopping and the other 50 percent is arts and crafts,” Kosir said.
Nick Kosir is taking the weather game by storm. From dancer, forecaster, to fashionista and everything in between, he is generating flames on his social media game. With his out of the box style and personality, Nick is blazing the path for future meteorologists and others by doing what he loves and being authentically himself. If you are looking to find your niche in life, Nick states,
“When something comes easy to you, but it’s not easy to other people. Then that’s what you are supposed to be doing.”
For more information on Nick Kosir and his wild social media ride, you can watch him on Good Day Charlotte or follow him @fox46Nick on Instagram and Twitter.
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Written by Marage Blakeney