Every once in a while, you hear a song that you know the whole world is going to be dancing to. This is that song. You want to shake it to the max? Get in. Let’s talk about it. “Shake It to the Max” is by Moliy, who is a Ghanaian singer. And the original was made with Silent Addy, who is a Jamaican producer. That record came out a few months ago. It spawned numerous freestyles, numerous TikToks. And what happened is official remixes started coming out of this unofficial engagement. The biggest remix and the one that’s getting the most play and the most chart attention right now features Shenseea, who’s a great Jamaican singer and rapper, and also Skillibeng, a great dancehall artist. It blends a lot of influences from a lot of different places, even though on a fundamental level, this is a dancehall record. There are little flickers of other styles here, which befits an artist like Moliy, who was raised in Ghana, spent some time in Florida for school and then moved back to Ghana in order to really get her music career going. The one thing you can say about this song: It’s salacious. This is late night whining music. A song you want to hear at 3 in the morning, when you’re huddled up with someone. You want to see them at 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning, 6 in the morning, 7 in the morning, 8 in the morning. If you grew up in New York listening to Hot 97, you know that every year there’s always been one or two dancehall records that end up becoming de facto summer anthems. That could have been Wayne Wonder “No Letting Go,” Sean Paul “Get Busy,” Elephant Man’s “Pon de River, Pon de Bank,” Tony Matterhorn’s “Dutty Wine,” And Charly Black’s “Gyal, You a Party Animal.” In recent years that’s expanded a little bit. You have dancehall, but you also have Afrobeats. The impact of Nigerian music on American radio cannot be overstated. And so what you’ve had is a real diversification in the kinds of records that are getting played on traditionally hip-hop and R&B stations. Then you end up in 2025 with a song like “Shake It to the Max,” which takes elements of all of these things and mixes it into one global club smash. You’re going to hear it everywhere you go. Up, down, inside, outside. See you on the Parkway. Shake it to the max.