One of R&B's freshest, most adventurous, and unique stars in the game is letting fans know that she is not messing around. 070 Shake, best known for her work with Kanye West on his album Ye and her breakout debut album Modus Vivendi, is back with a new single "Body." The song is her third single from her upcoming album You Can't Kill Me, which is set to release on June 3rd.
On "Body", 070 Shake shows off her gruff vocals' ability to adapt to slow, tense verses and a more passionate chorus. Her vocal range has caught the eye of the industry and with good reason. Since her breakout songs with Ye in 2018, she has gone on to work with artists like Madonna, Nas, DJ Khaled, and many more. "Body" shows that she still has the vocal chops to carry a song, even if it's not her most extreme or standout performance. It fits the atmosphere of the song just right.
070 Shake is also showing off her vocals in an ongoing North American tour in support of You Can't Kill Me, which is set to end on June 10th at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. You can find tickets for her remaining shows here.
But even more important than 070 Shake's vocals (at least in this song) is her production work alongside Dave Hamelin, David Andrew Sitek, and the legendary Mike Dean, Kanye's go-to production wizard. This is not the first time the two have worked together, but this may be their most compelling collaboration from an instrumental perspective.
The song starts off ambient: breath samples, subtle bass, synth pads that sound like sonar pings, and 070 Shake's sultry lead vocals. High synthesizers introduce a slow, muted R&B beat that blossoms over the track to match 070 Shake's heightened passion on the second verse. As the track progresses, the synthesizer lead becomes more soaring and more powerful (no doubt courtesy of Mike Dean, as this is one of his "signatures" as a producer), until they solely dominate the track's final moments in a tense and dramatic outro. It's the moment of reflection at the end of a journey, and you forget how slow the song started.
Lyrically, 070 Shake seems to be talking about another woman in a crumbling relationship, with the title of the song referring to the purely physical relationship between them. At the start, she sings about forgetting that this is just a woman in a body, which hints toward the soulful connection they share but don't realize until later in the song. She sings "She ran it up then ran off... when the novocaine don't work, I'll be the one touching your body." With the final lyrics of the song "I wanted your body, but it came with your soul / Mmm, I don't know", she acknowledges this physical connection has more layers than expected and carries a lot of emotional weight for the other woman.
070 Shake has stayed pretty quiet in the headlines as of late, excluding the previous release of her other two singles for You Can't Kill Me, "Web" and "Skin and Bones". The last we heard of her were dating rumors circulating around her and Kehlani back in October. She is very much in album mode, and the excellent "Body" shows that her efforts are worth the focus.
You can listen to 070 Shake's dreamy new track "Body" and check out its visualizer below.
Quotable Lyrics
Say hello to your body
When I'm back out on the road
Talk to me with your body
When your words can't anymore