Shaked Miller, aka Shaked Shalom, shows up with a skateboard under her arm. She’s standing at the entrance to the coffee shop at the corner of the park on the street with graffiti-marked walls. Wearing an oversized basketball jersey and with her signature big Yemenite curls, she fits in, here at the café, with its Gen-Z crowd, and in this south Tel Aviv neighborhood, with its sometimes gritty wannabe feel of an East Village knock-off.
And although hip hop was born in the Bronx, this may be Miller’s time to introduce her brand of hip hop to Israel in its fullest, multi-medium Gen-Z version – political statement and all. Or maybe, when you consider that, as Miller notes, “Israelis don’t really listen to English music,” this is her time to go global and blow up in the rest of the world. “Yeah, we actually are supposed to have a meeting to talk about that tomorrow,” she says when asked about plans to go international.
Miller, 24, a Kfar Saba native and daughter of a hi-tech entrepreneur and a banker, brings hip hop/R&B in its most literal ‘I have something to say and I don’t give a damn what you think about me’ finest.
When she raps, it sounds like the musings of a female Eminem. When she sings, it’s notes of Amy Winehouse. She plays many instruments. And she writes. And she produces. Plus, did we mention she has a lot to say?
Her debut EP, Best of This World, was released in 2023. “I wrote some songs about this girl,” Miller says, openly owning her identity as a member of the LGBTQ community. Songs on the EP like “Get the Girl,” and “Hold On” talk about relationships, love and loss, and showcase her R&B sound. But it’s where her music has gone post-October 7 that is most interesting.
Miller records song entitled 'Never Again'
When the war began, Miller says, she stayed home and made all of her grandmother’s recipes – meatballs and cakes – and invited everyone she knew to come over and eat. “It was my coping mechanism. But then I realized I could not do that for six months.” So she caught a flight to Thailand that was originally delayed following October 7. She was there when the US congressional hearings took place, grilling the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT about campus antisemitism. “I saw the women saying that intifada and genocide of the Jews depends on the context. And it felt like the way Israel was explaining what was going on here was really censored, nice and polite,” she says.
We’re outside the coffee shop, in the park, on a big bench in the shade. Miller is sitting cross-legged, rolling a cigarette and talking. She was angry, she says. She shut herself in her hotel room for two days and started “making that beat and writing,” recording it on her laptop. The song “Never Again” was launched across platforms in April, “Sick and tired of all you hating - - - - liars. All of you are - - - - biased. Calling rapists freedom fighters,” Miller raps.
The song got some attention, but according to Miller, response was limited because they couldn’t do paid online promotion due to references to genocide and Nazis. The video for the song, gritty and raw, shows a blindfolded Miller tied to a chair, fleeing invisible pursuers. The song closes with the words, “NOVA Festival. NEVER STOP DANCING… We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state…”
Then came American rapper Macklemore and his ode to pro-Palestinian university protestors, “Hind’s Hall.” “Block the barricade until Palestine is free…” he raps. “Block the barricade until Palestine is free from Hamas,” Miller retorts in her version, released on social platforms.
Writing and recording a rebuttal to Macklemore was easy, Miller says, “because most of the material… was in Macklemore’s text already… white supremacy, occupation, apartheid – lots of stuff that are for a fact untrue and are easy to deduce if you live here.” She recorded the rebuttal clip footage herself. “I filmed in Jaffa, on the train with Arabs around, showing it’s not an apartheid state…on the beach where there are Arabs, Jews, and Christians. Because this is Israel.”
MILLER IS currently at work on her second album. She makes ends meet by producing music for other artists and slinging coffee. On one hand, she is realistic. “I want to make money from music,” she says, acknowledging, “I might have to do some pop … ” On the other hand, she has goals. “I want to produce tons of music for myself and for amazing artists. I want to be better at everything – playing, singing, rapping, performing.”
Miller watches people walk by as she speaks, pausing as she answers, choosing her words carefully. She has dreams. Diddy style, she wants to invest in/open a “network of schools to make the gap between people smaller.” Most of all, she wants to help, to somehow make a difference. “I want to be described as an activist, as a person who made a change, and as an inspiration.”
Shaked Miller will be performing at the Dune Festival on June 11.Follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/shakedmiller/
