After retiring his long-running moniker Spank Rock, singer/rapper/songwriter Naeem Juwan made a dramatic shift in direction, from party-geared rap to a nuanced blend of understated R&B, electronic beats, and idiosyncratic songwriting. Now going just under his first name, Naeem released Startisha, his first album of new material, in the summer of 2020.

Baltimore native Juwan began making rowdy, lewd party rap as Spank Rock in the mid-2000s and continued into the end of the 2010s. After over a decade working as Spank Rock, he outgrew the juvenile brashness that people had come to expect from the project and wanted to explore different aspects of his musical personality. As Naeem, he began writing songs that incorporated both rapping and singing, moving into territory somewhere between Prince-esque R&B and textural rap production. Naeem's first single, "Sway(e)d," appeared in 2018. A full-length album, Startisha, arrived two years later, and included guest spots from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, Amanda Blank, Swamp Dogg and others. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi