Spank Rock

If A Tribe Called Quest had jettisoned the bong-jazz flow and picked up where Afrika Bambaataa left off, the group would have created something like the simultaneously amped-up and chilled-out atmosphere of the debut by Baltimore duo Spank Rock. Naeem Juwan doesn't blaze any trails with his booty-call braggart lyrics, but given the inventively dense video-game spasms of Yo's backdrops, he really only needs to coast without interfering -- which he does with slick and cocky ease. Spank Rock channels the ghosts of club floors past and present with Miami bass, glitch-hop, grime, and songs so traffic-jammed with samples and rhythmic segues that you might mistake the record for a mash-up of the world's best and brightest DJs. YoYoYoYoYo may not be perfect, but its flaws are negligible in the face of its innovative excess and the way that every song's metallic techno groove tongues its way into your wet spots.