Nothing about 070 Shake's debut release Modus Vivendi looks accessible on the surface. In fact, the album cover looks like a random find in the experimental section at a record store. But what lies in the grooves of the record are songs that gleam with sincere lyricism, shimmer with well placed synths, and pulse with today's melodic trap sensibilities. As a friend concisely described it, the album "sounds like it travelled here in a trap-infused time machine from the '80s."
070 Shake is rather new to the music game. She started to pursue music seriously four years ago when she joined the 070 music collective, where she takes the first half of her stage name. The "070" is an homage to the New Jersey zip codes. After gaining considerable attention with a few songs on Soundcloud, the song "Proud" (the first song she ever wrote) caught the ears of YesJulz who then brought Shake onto Kanye West's radar.
By 2016, she was signed to Kanye's GOOD Music label. She released her first solo project in March of 2018, a 6-track EP called Glitter. The songs previewed her fixation on emotion and gave people a closer listen to her alto vocals that often shifts from smooth to more dry deliveries depending on where she's at emotionally in the song. Shake also lent her vocals to standout tracks on both Kanye's album Ye and Pusha T's Daytona, "Santeria" and "Ghost Town" respectively.
All of this work was leading up to one of the most impressive debut's in recent memory. Modus Vivendi is the debut of an artist who quite simply was meant to make music. In a new interview with Vogue Shake was asked what she wants to get out of her career in music, to which she responded with,
"I want to connect with people as much as I can, I want to leave an imprint. I'm always thinking about when I'm not here, you know. When I make an impression on people, I want it to live longer than I do. I want my art to live longer than I do. That's my biggest goal: that it lives longer than I do, so I can never really die."
Modus Vivendi has the sound and feeling of music that opens up a new door to a sonic future. So much of today's music is divided by either embracing nostalgia or current musical trends. The album's title is a Latin phrase that is translated as "way of life" and understood to mean "an arrangement or agreement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully." 070 Shake figured out that you don't have to choose and all of the sounds and inspirations, from any decade, are all interconnected and up for grabs. What makes music fresh is speaking your truth and saying it in a way only you can.
Only time can tell but Modus Vivendi has the potential to be an album that resonates with people forever. And maybe it's premature to make such a heavy statement. But that's what music like this emboldens you to do. It makes the risk of being so wrong, so worth it.
Listen to 070 Shake below or on the iHeartRadio app.
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