Review by Vince Leigh
New York-based music artist and writer King Cavalli has just released Shake It, a follow-up to his last single Oceans of Emotions. Shake It is not what the title promises.
Sure, there are elements of dance, hip-hop, and a tincture of reggaeton, but Shake It is primarily a love song, RnB pop flavoured, sure, but a love song nonetheless. The ominous sounding introduction might even add to the idea of an all-out club floor extravaganza but is merely a set-up for the main fare: a love song King Cavalli style.
There aren’t too many working parts to the track— a verse, chorus, post-chorus arrangement that loops twice, and its strength lies in the melodic flair and straight-up lyric. People will connect.
And they will also not easily forget the melody. Hooky as. This earworm stuff never ceases to amaze me. The first line of this track was still bouncing around in my head days after I was first exposed to it. This is perfect radio fodder, of course.
And the production helps also. It’s contemporary and quite shiny with all the requisite textures and swishes and studio wizardry in place yet holding up what is a decent tune. Oceans of Emotions contained similar elements but it seems as if King Cavalli has created a more succinct and effective version of the same thing. Where Oceans invited comparisons to artists like J. Cole or Miguel, Shake It will more likely remind you of Jay Sean, Taio Cruz, or Jason Derulo. Not bad company as far as hitmakers go.
And that is surely the aim here, and why not? There is a celebratory tone to this track also which I imagine is not such an easy detail to communicate. But King Cavalli manages to do it and to execute it extremely well.
