Some songs already know how to make a room move. Then someone takes that same hook, leans into the sound that raised them, and the floor gets even happier. That is the story of Jon Muq’s “Shake Shake Dance For Me,” the first release on his new label Shake It Africa and a warm, percussive remake of the track Dan Auerbach produced for Muq’s 2024 Easy Eye Sound debut.
Born in a one-room home outside Kampala and now working out of Austin, Muq has always treated sound like a compass. A school brass band put an instrument in his hands. A guitar heard behind a fence gave him a way to accompany his voice. Years later, an Instagram take on “Blackbird” — posted after he mistakenly thought a friend had written the Beatles song — reached Auerbach. That connection led to Nashville, the album Flying Away, and stages with Billy Joel, Van Morrison, Norah Jones, Mavis Staples, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Valerie June. The new single does not erase that chapter. It just brings the groove closer to home.
Muq has said Afrobeats was always in him growing up in Uganda, so he wanted this version to carry the sound that still “flows in my bones.” Grammy-winning producer Derek Dixie (Beyoncé, Chloe x Halle, The Carters) takes the original melody and rebuilds it as a singalong: warm percussion, semi-acoustic guitar riffs, muted strings, keys and flute color, and a chorus written to be thrown back at the stage. The flirtation in the lyrics stays light — beauty, dancing, holding on for the night — and that is the point. This is feel-good global pop meant for playlists that want movement without heaviness.
It also marks a bigger shift. With manager and music executive Kevin Wommack, Muq turned an event idea into Shake It Africa, a record label and live company operating across Africa, Europe, and North America. The mission is practical: give African artists the sustained creative and professional support Muq wished he had earlier, without asking them to sand down who they are. “Shake Shake Dance For Me” is the first statement from that imprint, and a monthly residency at Pershing Hall in Austin starts September 20, with African artists, DJs, and cultural programming built into the nights.
Afrobeats and Afro-pop keep traveling because the best records still do two jobs at once: they feel local and they work anywhere a speaker can go. Muq’s remake sits in that lane. You can hear the Kampala joy he has talked about for years — dozens of tribes, different dances, the idea that the happiness is yours as long as you shake what you have — and you can hear an Austin artist launching a platform instead of waiting for one.
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What do you think of this version of “Shake Shake”? Does the Afrobeats lift change how the chorus hits for you? Drop it in the comments.
