Levitate (Twenty One Pilots song)

"Levitate" is a rap rock song which also contains elements of hip hop and trap with psychedelic synths, electronic beats and fast-paced lyrics.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] It opens with the outro of the previous track on the album, "Jumpsuit". The song contains a reference to the lyrics of their song "Car Radio", where Tyler Joseph raps "I got back what I once bought, back in that slot I won't need to replace" in response to the chorus lyric from the 2013 song, "I ought to replace that slot with what I once bought, cause somebody stole my car radio and now I just sit in silence."[8] The song was described by Rolling Stone as a "minimalist" track where "Joseph raps over warbled synths and Dun's primal pummel". He delivers a complex sequence of cascading rhyme schemes in quick succession metered to the up-tempo cadence of the track's beat in an insistent yet effortless manner that matches the propulsion of the pummeling rhythm.[9] It has a tempo of 93 beats per minute and a duration of two minutes and twenty-five seconds.[10]

The song was first leaked onto the music platform Tidal on August 7, 2018, only to be quickly removed.[11] This was accompanied by a leaked track listing for the album.[12] The song was subsequently released via Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show as the day's "World Record".[13]

The song's music video was released on August 8.[14] The clip concludes the storyline from the two previous singles and was directed by Andrew Donoho, who directed videos for the previous Trench singles.[15] The video shows Tyler Joseph having his head shaved and rapping the song in a torch-lit mountain retreat filled with the rebel "Banditos" before being grabbed by one of the bishops, the leaders of Dema.[16]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Trench and Twenty One Pilots' official YouTube channel.[17][18]