Spesh-Ill-K

Spesh-Ill-K Interview:

Brockway: State your name, your occupation.
Spesh-Ill-K: I’m Spesh-K, part-time student, fulltime emcee. The illest alive. 2003 ECMA Nominee for Urban recording of the year. PIMP-T, holla back. We in it together dawg.

Brockway: Were you surprised when you got the (ECMA) nomination for urban recording of the year?
Spesh-Ill-K: Yeah, I was pretty surprised. It was unexpected. We had a little trouble – we got the nomination application in a little late.

Brockway: Yeah, but their pretty lenient about that.
Spesh-Ill-K: Yeah, well, I was actually at work and my sister called me up and said “Congratulations on the ECMA”. I’ll I could say was “Shut up, quite bugging me a work.” So, I was pretty surprised.

Brockway: Would you consider her to be a big fan?
Spesh-Ill-K: Actually, she lived in Napal for the past year and she came back to Halifax for 6 months, but she left again last week to go back to Thailand and Napal. So it was really special hearing it from her.

Brockway: It’s hard when you don’t see them for awhile.
Spesh-Ill-K: Yeah, it’s some good memories

Brockway: So, you’ve got a new album coming out soon, right?
Spesh-Ill-K: Sometime real soon. I think it’s gonna be April.

Brockway: There’s all kinds of stuff dropping from Halifax real soon.
Spesh-Ill-K: Yeah, yeah. Classified, Trobiz,… I got this deal with NoDistribution.

Brockway: How did you hook that up? Did they seek you out, or did you seek them out?
Spesh-Ill-K: Basically, I’ve been seeking out distributors since I was 18. Distribution plays a big part of it, because you’re not pushing your cds out of your backpack. Basically, it makes it a whole bunch easier to get out and support the music.

Brockway: Yeah, like for getting a video grant.
Spesh-Ill-K: Exactly.

Brockway: I know you’ve applied for VideoFACT funding at least once.
Spesh-Ill-K: Yeah. I think we had two, maybe three. Lucky number four.

Brockway: I think it’s lucky number three, but ah…
Spesh-Ill-K: I been endeavoring with the digital video shoots. We’re getting some high quality stuff done.

Brockway: So are you doing this yourself?
Spesh-Ill-K: It’s definitely an option with the quality of stuff you can get now. It’s good experience before doing a video shoot on film.

Brockway: I know that myself, if we do another video, we’re looking into doing it with digital video instead of film because it’s so much easier.
Spesh-Ill-K: And it’s good for a low-budget test run, if you know what I mean. Cause everyone you know is working on a low budget.

Brockway: And as I’ve found out, you can just put out something on the web that’s dope and it can give you a lot of exposure.
Spesh-Ill-K: Exactly. The web is such a big thing like hiphopcanada.com if they have a PIMP-T link up or a Spesh-K link up that gets seen and cats get noticed.

Brockway: You seem to have a pretty solid web presence. How’d you manage to get that out there?
Spesh-Ill-K: Well, basically…

Brockway: A lot of procrastination days with your university degree?
Spesh-Ill-K: Yeah. I was lucky cause it snowed on Tuesday and I was supposed to have an exam, but I called it a snow day cause I looked outside and saw snow. Luckily we got through it and I got to write it on Thursday, so I’m excited for Spring Break cause the ECMAs is going down.

Brockway: What are your thoughts on the urban category being the only ECMA award category that accepts singles for recording of the year?
Spesh-Ill-K: I think this takes the focus from hip-hop, and doesn't really recognize the crazy shit emcees and dj's are doing on the east coast.

Brockway: What do you think of mp3.com's new policy of only allowing three songs to be posted on an artist's page at a time.
Spesh-Ill-K: Mp3.com, fuck'em! I stopped updating my site when you had to pay a monthly fee to receive payments.

Brockway: Why did you switch your main site from mp3.com to iuma.com?
Spesh-Ill-K: Its free and easy, they don't email you 400 times a day, and I like it more.

Brockway: What are you studying at university?
Spesh-Ill-K: I'm a double major in English and Sociology at Saint Mary's University

Brockway: Do you find being in univesrity helps keep you connected? Or is it more of a pain in the neck?
Spesh-Ill-K: Its definitely a pain in the neck. Shit's a waste of time, but it kinda makes me feel productive.

Brockway: When can we expect your upcoming album? Do you have a title in mind?
Spesh-Ill-K: How I Represent The East Up North in May/June 2003

Brockway: Who will be handling the production?
Spesh-Ill-K: Production will be split mostly between Classified, Anonamyss, and probably a few other cats.

Brockway: Any guest emcees/deejays of note?
Spesh-Ill-K: Collabo's have been recorded but not narrowed down for the final mix.

Brockway: When can we expect the album to drop?
Spesh-Ill-K: By this summer, get out and cop that shit!

Brockway: Is there anything you'd like to add? Website? Email?
Spesh-Ill-K: spesh.iuma.com spesh@hiphopcanada.com

Brockway: Thanks for the interview.
Spesh-Ill-K: Peaz

For more information on Spesh-Ill-K, check out his website at spesh.iuma.com.