Nine years ago, Whitby native (big up, Whitby!) Kevin Brereton emerged on the slowly building Canadian hip-hop scene with the video “Musical Essence.”

During the time between the release of that song and the release of his debut disc, Exit (due out next month), Brereton dropped another well-received video, “Rise Like the Sun,” resulting in his being dubbed the future of Canadian hip-hop.

But he still felt dissatisfied with his music. Taking a couple of years to do some soul searching, Brereton was quickly forgotten about, only to re-emerge with a series of incendiary live shows in the last couple of years.

When the Varsity talked to the MC (currently known as K-OS) at the College Street café KOS, he described the revelation that led to most of the songs on Exit.

“I was in Vancouver working out of the Rascalz Kemo studio and I just got tired of programming drums all of the time,” explains Brereton.

“So I hooked up with a guitar player there (Russ Klein) and I started to say, ‘Hey, what if we did a whole record acoustically, based on songwriting,’ and that really defined the sound of all of those songs. Ninety percent of the songs [on Exit] started as some kind of acoustic riff.”

This approach can especially be heard in the first single, “Heaven Only Knows,” where the beat comes not from drums but a sparse acoustic guitar.

This bare-bones approach was critical for K-OS, though. He says, “My creative thing is wanting to be able to speak silently. I want to be able to compete with the most hard rock hip hop, but by doing something so simple….

“I wanted to make music that was so simple, it sort of made everyone seem like they were trying so hard, so that everyone would calm down a little.

“I think that’s what the music business needs, a little less effort and a lot more sincerity.”

Despite the prevalence of the acoustic guitar in the songwriting, Exit is far from predictable.

Strings adorn the lush “Call Me (Exit),” while a frenetic, almost Spanish rhythm dominates “Follow Me” and the next single, “Superstar (Part Two),” is pure Brit pop.

The result is the work of a vastly unique artist who is putting a new spin on organic hip-hop, which K-OS would dismiss.

“This record is a Canadian record. There’s no real originality because I don’t believe in that with music.

“I believe…the only originality that you could have is to take old things and rearrange them in a new way.”