N.A.S.A.

N.A.S.A., an acronym for North America South America, was a collaborative alternative dance project between <a href="spotify:artist:7F24NJplqlEzVe5aFllcF7">Squeak E. Clean</a> and DJ Zegon that rounded up an amazingly eclectic bunch of underground music stars for the full-length album The Spirit of Apollo. Of the two DJ/producers comprising N.A.S.A., <a href="spotify:artist:7F24NJplqlEzVe5aFllcF7">Squeak E. Clean</a> was the better known. Born <a href="spotify:artist:7F24NJplqlEzVe5aFllcF7">Sam Spiegel</a>, he initially established himself as an award-winning producer of television commercial soundtracks during the early to mid-2000s. His production for "Hello Tomorrow," a collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:6emHCSoB4tJxTVXakbrpPz">Karen O</a> of <a href="spotify:artist:3TNt4aUIxgfy9aoaft5Jj2">the Yeah Yeah Yeahs</a> for an Adidas spot, was awarded the Gold Lion for Best Music at the 2005 Cannes International Advertising Festival and proved so popular that it was released as a commercially available single. Around this same time, <a href="spotify:artist:7F24NJplqlEzVe5aFllcF7">Squeak E. Clean</a> began producing songs for a variety of recording artists. Most notably, he produced the Grammy-nominated <a href="spotify:artist:3TNt4aUIxgfy9aoaft5Jj2">Yeah Yeah Yeahs</a> album Show Your Bones (2006). Moreover, he collaborated from time to time with his brother, acclaimed video and film director Spike Jonze, on projects such as Yeah Right! (2003), a celebrated skateboarding film. Born Zé Gonzales, DJ Zegon was <a href="spotify:artist:7F24NJplqlEzVe5aFllcF7">Spiegel</a>'s South American counterpart. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil before relocating to Los Angeles, California, he is best known for his tenure in the Brazilian rap group <a href="spotify:artist:3nasa4yabzvUeb6DzejDYU">Planet Hemp</a>, which was active between the years 1993-2001 and released a series of albums on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony+Music%22">Sony Music</a>. Working together as N.A.S.A., the two DJ/producers rounded up a slew of noted music figures over the course of several years for what would ultimately become their full-length album debut, The Spirit of Apollo. Released in 2009 on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anti-+Records%22">Anti- Records</a>, the album featured vocal turns by <a href="spotify:artist:20vuBdFblWUo2FCOvUzusB">David Byrne</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0i1s9WcIu0PrUvHzALgofo">Seu Jorge</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:50NoVNy9GU1lCrDV8iGpyu">Ol' Dirty Bastard</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7x83XhcMbOTl1UdYsPTuZM">Tom Waits</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5K4W6rqBFWDnAN6FQUkS6x">Kanye West</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2GVBp7QyHckoOg7rYkLvrA">George Clinton</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0QJIPDAEDILuo8AIq3pMuU">M.I.A.</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6Jrxnp0JgqmeUX1veU591p">Santigold</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6oBm8HB0yfrIc9IHbxs6in">Lykke Li</a>, and many more. Unfortunately, <a href="spotify:artist:7F24NJplqlEzVe5aFllcF7">Speigel</a> contracted Lyme disease soon after and the project was put on hold. He scored some movies and video games in the meantime before ramping up a N.A.S.A. comeback for 2015, which included "Meltdown" (featuring <a href="spotify:artist:1HwM5zlC5qNWhJtM00yXzG">DMX</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5TPY1mgCEaVjJQnpDPFJVF">Priyanka Chopra</a>), "Jihad Love Squad" (featuring <a href="spotify:artist:2gINJ8xw86xawPyGvx1bla">KRS-One</a>), "Iko" (featuring female rapper <a href="spotify:artist:56oDRnqbIiwx4mymNEv7dS">Lizzo</a>), and the roiling "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!" (featuring <a href="spotify:artist:56oDRnqbIiwx4mymNEv7dS">Lizzo</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3Isy6kedDrgPYoTS1dazA9">Sean Paul</a>). ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi