This Weekend's Top Stop: Spank Rock

NAEEM JUWAN is bringing sexy back — no, really. Even though the rail-thin rapper, otherwise known as MC Spank Rock, recalls a hipster Steve Urkel, he dances like Shabba-Doo from 1984's "Breakin'" and delivers porno-fueled lyrics that would make Schooly D blush.

Spank Rock's superb debut album, "YoYoYoYoYo," is filled with ass-crunching jams and raunchy raps, but live is where Juwan and his crew really shine. Backed by the booty-bass tracks of Alex Epton (DJ Armani XXXchange), Juwan owns the stage with his goofy-hot shimming and mellow, Q-Tip-like flow. Another DJ, Christopher Rockswell, keeps things flowing when XXXchange grabs the mike alongside Juwan and battle-rap MC Ronnie Darko.

Juwan has described his group's music as something like "the rap version of Prince's '1999' album," while Epton offered a more accurate, if self-depreciating, depiction: "American kids ripping off European kids ripping off American hip-hop."

That definition also describes Baltimore club music, which mixes house, breakbeat and rap into one ferociously filthy mash-up. The stanky music of Maryland natives Juwan and Epton is steeped in B-more's sweaty sounds, so it's appropriate that the scene's godfather, Rod Lee, will open for Spank Rock.

But where Spank Rock's good-time music sounds inspired by a desire to party, Lee's minimalist, stripper-pole-ready tunes come from a darker, angrier place. His tinny, banging songs come across like short bursts of gunfire from inside a nudie bar, and Lee's latest CD, "Vol. 5: The Official," acts like a 30-track soundtrack for Bodymore, Murdaland's corner boys. The album's sick and not slick, but it's very real.

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Friday, 9:30 p.m., $12; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)

This post was written by Express contributor Christopher Porter.
Photo courtesy Spank Rock