Armed with little more than his father's extensive record collection, and a Kurzweil 2000 keyboard - Black Spade makes region less rap to warm the Midwest. His music is a melting pot of sounds from St. Louis by way of New York, Detroit, LA, and everywhere that hip-hop has carved a distinctive sound for itself. With a sly nod and a bit of reverence to music's past and present, Black Spade's production is full of burbling synths, and off-kilter drums that knock like live instrumentation. Yet despite all these things, his sound is distinctly his own. His voice slides smoothly over his intricate beats, full of compelling stops and starts that are the trademark of the Midwest hip-hop sound. Never preachy, Black Spade's choruses are coated in multi-tracked vocals and are awash with a Prince influence that matches his songs. Then there's his rapping - Spade's cadence flutters up and down like Pharoahe Monch, but he stays introspective like Common. Before you know it, he'll switch to singing and suddenly his songs become less like hip hop experimentation and more like fully fleshed sketches. At his core, Black Spade is a producer who makes music because he loves to. His sounds are grounded in the past while still sounding futuristic, and most importantly it comes from the heart and he just wants you to listen. Spade says, "To get my music out there to people. at the end of the day that's what really counts."