Kazakh DJ and producer Imanbek crafts futuristic dance-pop that pairs gleaming hooks with shadowy lyrical undercurrents. His breakthrough arrived via the 2019 remix of SAINt JHN's "Roses," an enormous viral hit that earned platinum certification across more than a dozen countries. Subsequent output has featured joint tracks with Usher, Marshmello, Tory Lanez, and Rita Ora, among them the 2021 EP Bang.
Born Imanbek Zeikenov in Aksu, Kazakhstan in 2000, he picked up guitar at the age of eight. Electronic dance music production began for him in 2017, yet he remained largely undiscovered until reworking Guyanese-American rapper SAINt JHN's 2016 single "Roses." Issued three years after the original, the club-oriented version surged in popularity, fueled by more than four billion TikTok streams in April 2020 alone. The track reached number one in Australia, Canada, and the U.K., climbed to number four on the Billboard 200, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording. A follow-up version later added a guest verse from J Balvin.
Throughout 2020 Imanbek maintained a rapid release schedule, issuing the solo cut "Dope" on Spinnin' Records' Dharma Worldwide imprint alongside collaborations such as "Blackout" with Tory Lanez, "Hey Baby" with Afrojack and Gia Koka, and "Too Much" with Marshmello and Usher. In 2021 he teamed with Rita Ora for the four-song EP Bang, whose lead single "Big" also featured rapper Gunna and EDM megastar David Guetta.
