Meet the Artist: Joey Valence & Brae

Joey Valence & Brae are not simply a duo reviving old-school hip-hop — they are reanimating it with irreverent charm, kinetic energy, and a keen understanding of its roots. Their style dances effortlessly between nostalgia and novelty, grounding itself in the rapid-fire delivery and sampled textures of the genre’s golden era, while fusing in the playful chaos of a digital-age adolescence. Their latest album, HYPERYOUTH, serves as both a tribute and an evolution — a genre time capsule shaken open with modern verve. Released to a surge of underground buzz and critical murmurs, the record is sonically frenetic, brimming with spitfire lyricism and percussive mischief that reflects the very ethos the pair brings to the stage.

And what a stage it was. In a festival weekend packed with marquee names, Joey Valence & Brae were given a prime slot — simultaneously running against the inescapable gravity of Lenny Kravitz. Most acts might have shrunk in such a shadow, but this duo — draped in goofball pageantry — did the opposite. Joey strode out wearing a shirt that audaciously displayed a pair of bare, cartoonish breasts, while Brae counterbalanced with a look straight from 1995: popped collar, wide-legged pants, and a look of nonchalant swagger that might as well have walked off a TRL set. Their pre-show ritual, described with typical tongue-in-cheek bravado — “we kiss, we make-out and fondle one another. Just kidding, it’s just a routine of calm and relaxation. Fist bump, hydrate with water type of stuff.” — is emblematic of a pair whose humor never detracts from their discipline, but rather informs it.

From the first beat drop, the crowd was theirs. Thousands jumped, screamed, and rapped in near-synchrony, not simply watching the performance but becoming an extension of it. JVB navigated the crowd with playful antagonism, teasing fans who claimed to know them. “You are all liars,” they shouted, grinning from ear to ear, before ironically likening themselves to the Backstreet Boys. That satirical self-deprecation belied a set built on precision and charisma. With no laser lights, no elaborate props, and only a DJ serving as their hype conductor, the two generated a kind of sweaty, floor-thumping electricity that felt refreshingly human. There was nothing artificial here — just raw stamina, rhythm, and a sincere bond between performers and audience.

The show reached peaks that felt like orchestrated chaos, as songs from HYPERYOUTH collided into older cuts, all delivered with punkish defiance. Tracks like “Punk Tactics” and “RN” blurred genre lines with unapologetic glee, their choruses shouted back at them by a crowd that clearly came ready. And yet, for all their antics, Joey Valence & Brae are not mere comedians with microphones. They are tacticians of tempo, architects of adrenaline. The humor is the sugar, but the rhyme schemes and production sensibilities are the medicine. Their sound is steeped in the DNA of Beastie Boys and early Pharcyde, yet it does not feel recycled. Rather, it feels reclaimed — reintroduced to a generation that has spent too long being served formulaic rap by committee.

In a brief interview before the set, when asked which other Shaky Knees Festival act they would most like to share a stage with, they answered — without hesitation — Sublime. The connection makes perfect sense. Like the Californian legends, Joey and Brae straddle genres, weaving ska, rock, and hip-hop into their own kaleidoscopic mesh of noise and personality. That influence also informs their description of HYPERYOUTH. “Fun,” Joey offered confidently. Brae, slightly more reserved but no less mischievous, followed with a smirk and a single word: “Booty-bouncing.” That contrast between performative boldness and disarming sincerity is part of what makes their chemistry work so fluidly. They are showmen, yes, but also students — archivists of hip-hop’s irreverent beginnings.

As the set ended and the final beat faded into festival noise, there was a palpable sense that something new had just arrived. Joey Valence & Brae are not resting on irony or aesthetics alone; they are building something foundational — reinvigorating hip-hop’s essence by stepping backward in order to launch forward. In a cultural moment saturated with glossy commercial rap and genre confusion, their throwback aesthetic feels both subversive and necessary. It is not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, but a purposeful revival driven by a youthful fearlessness. These two are not anomalies — they are harbingers of a newish old-school. And if HYPERYOUTH is any indication, their trajectory is not just steep, but inevitable.