MC Spyda

Colin Griffith, known on record as MC Spyda (also credited as $pyda and Black Tarantula), is an award-winning Nottingham-based MC and producer working primarily within drum & bass and jungle. He is credited for guest vocals on Pendulum’s "Tarantula" and appears across releases and compilations on labels including BassLayerz, Born On Road, Monstercat and DnB Allstars.

Spyda’s roots are in dancehall. He recorded his first track while on holiday in Antigua and rose through UK sound-system culture from the early 1980s. That early dancehall/selector environment provided the frame for his move into drum & bass and jungle, and it underpins the delivery and phrasing he brings to collaborative tracks.

As an MC his voice sits in the ragga/toasting tradition: patois-inflected phrasing, tight rhythmic hooks and call-and-response lines that lock to a track’s breaks. On Pendulum’s "Tarantula" he supplies shouted vocal motifs and chant-style hooks that ride the track’s rolling DnB arrangement. With partners such as Benny Page and General Levy he leans into ragga/jungle textures; with DJ Fresh, Matrix & Futurebound and Aquasky he adapts to cleaner, more tuned DnB and breakbeat frameworks. His credits with grime names D Double E and Frisco show the crossover of his vocal style into UK urban styles beyond straight jungle.

Where production and studio work are concerned, Spyda’s contributions focus on marrying dancehall vocal technique to DnB/jungle production conventions. Examples across his collaborations show him working over programmed break edits, prominent sub-bass lines and dub-style delay or echo on the vocal, as on Teddy Killerz’s "Hardcore Riddim" (where his feature sits against heavier, more aggressive bass and percussion). These pairings underline a practical studio approach: fit the vocal rhythm to the break pattern, carve space for low-end impact, and use vocal processing (reverb, delay, cuts) to create hooks that survive dense mixes.

Career highlights are collaboration-heavy. He is best known for guesting on Pendulum’s "Tarantula" and for studio or release work with Benny Page, DJ Fresh, Matrix & Futurebound, Aquasky, Bru-C, General Levy, Teddy Killerz ("Hardcore Riddim"), D Double E and Frisco. His name appears on compilations and label releases on BassLayerz, Born On Road, Monstercat and DnB Allstars, reflecting a catalogue of features across drum & bass, jungle and adjacent bass-driven styles.

Public biographical detail beyond these credits is limited, but the record is clear: Colin Griffith—MC Spyda—brings a dancehall-rooted MC technique into drum & bass and jungle recordings, working as both a featured vocalist and as a producer-collaborator from his base in Nottingham.