Be clear. Outside of the “Conqueror” mixtape from Cory Campbell a.k.a. the guy who's exceptional on a lot of Andy Mineo choruses, there hasn’t been a vocalist who has held my attention ‘hostage’ this year in the way SPZRKT (pronounced 'Spazzy Rocket') has with the May 7th 2013 release of “The Loner”. Those two should probably work together at some point...somebody needs to 'A&R' that move...but I digress. Sure, an artist like Collision Records' Christon Gray for example is a vocal phenom in the classic sense of R&B that’s sanctified & I’m definitely a major fan of him & his work with 'We Live As Kings', but SPZRKT operates from a whole other ‘universe’ in technique & stylistics alone. The twenty something year old Texan’s knack for emotive songwriting doesn't hurt him either. To be honest, being an avid listener of R&B past, present & potential future, I did find what I thought to be familiar nuances in his music that reminded me of certain artists of the sacred & the profane, but as SPZRKT quickly countered in his rebuttal to my observation, the Social Club Misfit Gang Wolf Pack crooner is just a dedicated ‘student of the game’ using the lessons learned with brilliant application to make a mark that’s clearly his own. SPZRKT’S latest effort has inspired another episode of “The Profiler Series” & in it, this emcee 'investigates' a soulful singer to gather evidence on why he sounds NOTHING like Abel (That’s ‘The Weeknd’ for some of y’all Christian Hip Hop kids), why he thinks highly of James Blake, why discussing ‘heartbreak’ in a Christian context is necessary & the story behind MartyMar’s belief...and that ‘Awkward’ verse of his.

Let’s get to it people...