Rob Bailey

Bodybuilder, photographer, and clothing brand founder Rob Bailey started out trying to make high-energy workout tapes, but coupled with producer <a href="spotify:artist:1xroL0TUP82C2NvqfgUOxZ">Charlie Hustle</a>, he came up with a blend of rock, hardcore, hip-hop, rap, dubstep, and who-knows-what that made him an unlikely but viable left-field musical artist as the second decade of the 21st century rolled in. In 2015, after a issuing a series of mixtapes and EPs, Bailey and <a href="spotify:artist:1xroL0TUP82C2NvqfgUOxZ">Hustle</a> unleashed their first full-length, workout-ready Bro-down, Go.

His story is one of him simply following his interests. His interest in art, design, photography, video, and graphics took him to art school for a time at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, but he left without graduating to take a job as a Web designer at QVC. When his wife, a then unknown Dana Linn Bailey, told him her dream was to be a professional bodybuilder and to own her own gym, he threw himself into advancing her career, using some of the marketing skills he picked up while working for QVC. Bailey invested $400 in T-shirts and screen-printed them in his garage, thus starting a successful fashion brand, Flag Nor Fail. Relentlessly creative, Bailey next set out to make mixtapes of tracks he liked to work out to, refining things until, along with producer <a href="spotify:artist:1xroL0TUP82C2NvqfgUOxZ">Hustle</a>, he created a mash-up of various beat styles, from hard rock to rap and club rhythms, and with a rough, powerful vocal style laid over the top, he found himself becoming a successful independent musical artist with a built in niche audience and enough accessibility to build on it. An EP from Bailey and the Hustle Standard, Battle Tested, appeared in 2012, with an eight-track mini-album, Beast, following in 2013. Two years later saw the release of Bailey's debut synth-pop and F-bomb-laden full-length, Go, which was also released in a clean version. In 2018 <a href="spotify:artist:70eNABm9r2VXOGYW4r209H">Bailey & the Hustle Standard</a> issued their sophomore long player, Spectrum. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi