Jazz From the Valley Release “Shake That”

Jazz From the Valley’s scene had two huge years in 2020 and 2021, and thus, it would be safe to assume that she came into 2022 with some pretty high expectations. A lot of her closest competition – all of whom have more than one single in their collection as of now – wasn’t prepared for the ever-changing trends of Gen Z, but for Jazz From the Valley, not everything revolves around concepts. In her new single “Shake That,” the colorful rapper reminds us that music can have some of the most powerful properties of any element in the universe amidst changing times like these, and for fans of both hip-hop and pop, it’s just what we needed at the moment.  

I love the unforced grit introduced to the melody via the groove parts here, and even though the video spotlights the individual contributions of the verses here brilliantly, it doesn’t minimize their collective wallop at all. There’s too smooth a chemistry between these elements for anything but a powerful amalgamative harmony to result from a performance like this one, and even though some classic hip-hop elements and influences have been preserved for “Shake That,” the magic in this song was simply too strong to be stifled by something as minute as physical space.  

We get a great balance of percussive potency and melodic charm in this single and its music video, and to some degree, I think the juxtaposition (as opposed to induced conflict) between the two is part of the reason why “Shake That” sounds so compositionally multidimensional. You can’t fake the passion that Jazz From the Valley is guiding everything here with – her voice is truly an entity that takes over the spotlight regardless of what anyone puts it beside, but it’s being employed in a fashion here that doesn’t erase any room for the instrumental parts to throw down some charisma of their own.  

The more synthetic components are perhaps the only thing I might consider unnecessarily overindulgent, but they nonetheless provide “Shake That” with an added dose of intimacy that reinforces the familiar feel of the verses perfectly. Little details matter a great deal when trying to create something aesthetically conscious, particularly in a year like 2022, and to her credit Jazz From the Valley proves to us in this release that intricacies are her specialty. Some might be quick to overlook something as simple as a beat’s rigidity, but that’s hardly the case in this single.  

Of all the inspired content I’ve had the chance to hear in the past few months – and believe me, I’ve heard far more than what anyone could call my fair share from a burgeoning rap scene underground – Jazz From the Valley’s contribution to the conversation in “Shake That” is definitely an instant favorite. This is a gem of a song that is supported by a music video I’d recommend just as strongly as I would the source material, and that hasn’t been so with much of the content her American counterparts have been releasing lately. Jazz From the Valley has a natural gift, and it’s certainly being put to good use once more this autumn.  

Mindy McCall