SO, what did Nicholi White do on his summer vacation?
Not much — he only became a YouTube superstar is all.
The Harlem eighth-grader is a bona fide Internet phenom thanks to the lip-syncing and dance videos he records using the free Web cams inside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue.
“I’m blowing up,” he says. “I’m going back to school on Sept. 9, and I can’t wait. I’m going to show my teachers.”
White has a specific technique: Get there in the afternoon when it’s not too crowded, play a YouTube song in the background that he can dance to and use iMovie to record high-quality video. He hasI nternet access at home, but not a camera, which is what led him to the Apple store in the first place.
And yes, people do notice him. “They stop,” he says. “They’re amazed because sometimes they don’t know what I’m doing. They think I’m crazy.”
In fact, the priceless faces of customers — ranging from delighted to bewildered — who walk around or stand frozen next to the dancing, mugging, shirt-tugging 13-year-old is the best part of the videos.I
After getting YouTube traction, one of his videos was featured Monday on “Good Morning America.” Now, the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah have also come calling.
“I feel like I want to cry right now,” he says on his latest clip, a “thank you” video on his YouTube channel (Nicholifavs). “Know why all this happened? Because of y’all guys right there, so I’m just going to blow a kiss to y’all because y’all just amazing.”
When he’s not blowing up, White lives in Harlem and attends IS 195. His mother is currently unemployed, and he grew up with an absent father (something he’s talked about in his videos) who’s in prison. Still, White is savvier than the average kid to the ways of showbiz. Older brother Anthony Wilson, 27, is a model and actor with a few bit parts (“Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ” and “Notorious”) and acts as something of a manager. Nicholi himself used to be an aspiring actor when he was younger, even appearing in a public service announcement with Chris Brown.
Wilson initially gave him a hard time about the videos. “I asked, ‘Don’t you think these people think you’re crazy?’ ” But Nicholi just kept doing his thing. “He cool,” Wilson says. “He cool.”
Mom Jill, 46, is not quite as composed when she sees her younger son’s mix of innocence with Kanye-style confidence. “I don’t know — it’s amazing!”
There have been Web rumblings that White is simply part of a guerrilla ad campaign. A blogger at Urlesque.com posted, “If, indeed, this is a viral marketing ploy by Apple, then hats off. And if it isn’t, Apple had better snatch him up quick. Justin Long, meet your match.”
But both boy and company have confirmed they are not working together, and that’s as much as Apple would say about White.
He did, however, just get approached on MySpace to do a commercial. White, who loves comedians Dane Cook and Katt Williams, says he wants to be a wrestler one day.
For now, there’s the next video, which he’ll be recording at the Fifth Avenue store tomorrow at 3 p.m. (“If you want to meet me, just come on down.”) And he’s still tickled by how it all started.
“I said, ‘One day I want to make videos and I be asking my friends, ‘Am I funny to make videos?’ And some of them said yes and some said no. Most of my cousins think it’s stupid. But I don’t really care because I’m on top.”
So, does he worry about getting a big head from all this?
“Yes,” he giggles. “Like a melon.”
mstadtmiller@nypost.com