Spank Rock

Spank Rock's latest release, the six-track EP The Upside (2014), is an intense dose of club-ready rap, featuring production by New Orleans trap upstart Kid Kamillion, Philly hip-hop producer Noah Breakfast, Don Loemax, With You (Switch and Rick Trainor), German techno producer Boys Noize, and a long anticipated track with Amanda Blank (of "Bump" fame). Fast, ghetto, provocative, and complex, The Upside was one of the most unique and creative dance records of 2014.

Baltimore native Naeem Juwan, a.k.a Spank Rock, rose to fame in Philadelphia with the Diplo-helmed Hollertronix crew and began crafting the type of live performances that became underground legend in the early 2000s. With production partner Alex "XXXChange" Epton, Juwan melded Bmore club, Miami booty bass, and underground rap influences into the seminal LP YoYoYoYoYo on UK label Big Dada in 2006, an album cited by many fans and critics as a progenitor of the dance/rap hybrid genres that have spread worldwide over the past decade.

Spank Rock has continued to release genre-defying rap and dance albums, has toured with everyone from Bjork to the Beastie Boys to Boys Noize, made records with Santigold, Big Freedia, Le1f, Rye Rye, Kylie Minogue, Benny Blanco, Mark Ronson and Mos Def, and remains one of the most enigmatic and electrifying performers in music today.