38 Spesh

38 Spesh, a committed adherent to boom-bap, has delivered some of the starkest and clearest depictions of street life to emerge from the New York underground after 2000. The rapper and producer maintains an extensive catalog exceeding two dozen solo and joint efforts, among them Time Served (2012), Stabbed & Shot (2018), A Bullet for Every Heathen (2019), and 7 Shots (2022). He maintains close working relationships with fellow Upstate New York artists Benny the Butcher and Che Noir while also recording alongside key influences such as Kool G Rap, Ghostface Killah, and DJ Premier.

Originally performing as 38 Special, the Rochester native began rapping in the early 2000s. In 2006 he appeared on Alive on Arrival, a mixtape by his early supporter DJ Green Lantern, another Rochester artist. By the close of the decade Spesh had taken headline billing on two additional projects presented by Lantern. Following a two-year prison term, he resurfaced in 2012 with Time Served, initiating a steady flow of recordings that extended through the remainder of the 2010s. Beyond his own output, he featured artists from his TCF Music Group roster via the Trust Tape series. Joint projects paired him with Benny the Butcher on Cocaine Cowboys and Stabbed & Shot, with Joe Blow on In the Mob We Trust, and with Kool G Rap on the cross-generational Son of G Rap. He concluded his second decade of activity with several solo releases, the most prominent being A Bullet for Every Heathen.

Particularly active during 2020, Spesh issued at least ten projects that year, collaborating with Che Noir and Planet Asia on multiple duo efforts while also releasing solo material that included the instrumental set Speshal Blends and Interstate 38. He reunited with Benny the Butcher for Trust the Sopranos in 2021 and followed with the solo album 7 Shots the next year. In 2023 he continued releasing material, joining Vic Spencer on Greenthumbs Meets Trigger Fingers and Grafh on Art of Words.