Even though spring is formally upon us, Madonna can’t seem to quit her talk of things being “Frozen” (which is actually germane when factoring in global warming trends). Specifically, a certain man’s heart… even though all men’s hearts are, it really doesn’t matter which one you choose to fixate upon, in the end.
And so, after already bringing us a Sickick remix featuring Fireboy DML, M has now seen fit to give us another edition featuring 070 Shake. Perhaps even more “up-and-coming” than Fireboy DML, Shake (a.k.a. Danielle Balbuena) has the vague misfortune of being tied to Kanye West as a result of getting signed to his label, GOOD Music. But at least Pusha T is the president? Anyway, M doesn’t seem to much mind continuing to be associated with Kanye, being photographed with him and his erstwhile girlfriend, Julia Fox, earlier this year.
Being that “Frozen” is a song all about wanting to melt someone’s ego away, however, it’s only appropriate that M should keep consorting with Ye, perhaps in her own small bid to minimize the rapper’s inflated sense of self by offering him some Kabbalah wisdom. In any case, like all the A$APs, “070” in front of Shake is just meant to indicate she’s part of a musical collective of the same name. A New Jersey-centric one that has seen Shake set herself apart, particularly with her 2020 debut album, Modus Vivendi.
Among a rare breed—a woman in trap music—Madonna naturally gravitated toward her for a remix opportunity. What’s more, Shake’s constant use of female pronouns in mentioning who she’s attracted to is likely another factor that drew Madonna in. For M could have just as easily been the one to say (at least during her Sandra Bernhard phase), like Shake, “I don’t really identify myself as queer or gay or anything. I just like girls.”
With the message of “Frozen” being all about melting a boy’s heart (and, as mentioned, ego), the intro to Shake’s “Guilty Conscience” video feels all too relevant to the message of “Frozen.” It’s a quote from Dani Moon that goes, “Although I’m not a boy, I wanted to display a boy being broken. How he manages his sadness when he is not allowed to cry. From young, a boy must create a shell that protects him from his own emotions. But when that shell cracks, it creates an intense amount of vulnerability where the boy must replace the shell with actions that make him seem as if the shell never broke. He replaces the shell with Ego, Desire and Pride.” The things that Kabbalah, therefore Madonna, decry the most (even if Madonna’s ego is still plenty large—but small compared to 80s-era Madonna).
Other similar “isms” of the Madonna canon are also featured on “Lose My Cool,” during which Shake declares, “There’s a god in me, shootin’ for a higher self/A higher frequency.” M is definitely on that wavelength, and a collaboration between the two makes more sense than meets the eye.
In the video for this Sickick remix, Madonna continues to emulate the vibe and aesthetic of the “Crave” video (another song wherein she sought a youthful rapper to complement her vocals) as she did with Fireboy DML. But this time around, there are elements of the car-focused visuals of “What It Feels Like For A Girl” and the short film/BMW commercial Guy Ritchie also directed for her around the same time: “Star.”
Co-directed by Ryan Drake and Ricardo Gomes, we open on a revving vehicle with the interior perspective of M driving a bit recklessly (something about it also reminds one of the black and white driving scenes from the “Deeper and Deeper” narrative). As M gets out of the car, looking very “Bitch I’m Madonna”-era in terms of hair and sartorial style, she approaches Shake. We then cut to the latter standing behind a chain-link fence, clutching to it—with the video having switched from black and white to color (just as “Deeper and Deeper” did). From there, the most “dynamic” thing to really happen is the unique sense of shadow-play on the walls that was also, incidentally, rather prominent in M’s much-underrated 1987 movie, Who’s That Girl (yet another project that includes plenty of fast-paced driving scenes).
Use of stills from the video are then employed to make something like a brief clip show before Shake once again sings, “Open up the gates/I feel close enough to heaven/To go, to stay/To leave, to pray.” Fireboy DML instead offered, “Go on my knees and I pray to the Lord.” And yes, the word “pray” is very much associated with Madonna’s long-standing iconography (even though J. Lo tried her hand at making it her own recently). Other allusions to Madonna’s past work, namely “Rain” and Confessions on a Dance Floor, come in the form of Shake remarking, “Cast out in the rain/Guess they didn’t like my confession.”
By the end of the all-too-brief video (granted, it’s a touch longer than the one with Fireboy DML), Madonna can be seen in the same car again, this time with Shake in the passenger seat (seemingly having taken on the role of the old lady from Ol Kuntz Guest Home—that’s right, “Guest,” not “Rest”). The two then drive off into the night, perhaps to attempt melting hearts and crushing egos elsewhere in Los Angeles.
