Spesh K

"It's Going Down," appearing midway through The Main Event, is a perfect introduction to Halifax MC Spesh K, who counts this as his sixth album. In this song, all of his favourite topics are covered, as Spesh brags and boasts his way through raps about hip-hop, his skills, his 'hood, girls and weed. His delivery is hype and hungry, and the lyrics are witty but those topics are pretty much the extent of his subject matter. The beat is also a typical Spesh K pick, with Rayne Drop's contribution an exciting victory anthem, the type that would accompany a Rocky "last chance to win" training sequence, so maybe it's perfectly appropriate considering the title of the album. When the beats aren't being bombastic they often venture off into strange territory, like stoner anthem "Stay High," with S-Cape Artist's stripped back bass beat and out-of-tune singing, the bilingual "Manges tes Mots," with Hoodlum's synthesized horrorcore and guests Le Lunitique and Cordata, or Travis Veige's interesting and subtle sample selections for "Waiting," a trip-hop love song for hip-hop. Spesh also scores a couple of underground rap stars, with Sadat X contributing his personalized raps on what should soon be a college radio staple, "That's It Y'all," also featuring Moka on the hook, and Copywrite contributing his punch line raps on another bold and brash anthem, "Ready to Rumble," although his opening lines are a little unfortunate. In his obvious bid to go all out, Spesh K could have done with a bit of restraint, but The Main Event still ends up as his best album so far and could get him the attention he's hoping for.