Vallé Just Came Here For The Guap – New Single Out Now

After the runaway success of 2021’s Swing Low which saw Vallé nominated for a Pacific Music Award (Best Music Video) for the second year running, and playlisted on the world’s biggest Hip Hop & RnB Apple Music Playlist, the Ōtautahi based artist is back with a new slice Guap.

From the outset, it’s clear that Vallé is an artist with his head firmly in the game. Never one to shy away from highlighting big issues through his music, Guap is a track that welcomes the listener in with the hook from the outset before launching into a lyrical challenge to those who leverage minority voices to amplify their own. Of the track he says:

I just got fed up with performative activism and identity groups who act like their issues are the only ones relevant. I realised that behind it all lies a flawed human characteristic we all battle with – greed and the need to preserve oneself at the expense of another. Discerning the truth from the lies is harder than ever, particularly with the technologies we have available to us in this day and age…And so we resort to the age-old ‘The proof is in the pudding’ which is determined by how it tastes. Guap acts as an anecdote that points people to ‘taste’. I also acknowledges that greed is a battle I continue to fight thus realising I am no better than the next. So rather than prescribe the solution I’m trying to diagnose the problem”

Vallé lays his verses over a funk beat with horns, jazz chords, there’s even a synth solo to take us out. It’s a different shade to the Vallé we have come to expect. It’s a full minute into the track before Vallé unleashes the flow that we know. Bookended by an RnB hook, Guap showcases the variety within Valle’s artillery.

Having just won The APRA Professional Development Award last month, plus taking away a win for ‘APRA’s Best Country Music Song’ earlier this year for Trouble Finds A Girl a song by Jenny Mitchell he composed with Mitchell, Tami Neilson and Chris Wethey, 2022 has already seen Vallé kick plenty of goals. With his debut EP releasing very soon, Vallé season is heating up. Stay tuned for more from this incredibly talented artist.

Guap is out now. Available here