38 Spesh is a boom-bap disciple with over two dozen solo and collaborative projects, including Time Served (2012), Stabbed & Shot (2018), A Bullet for Every Heathen (2019), and 7 Shots (2022). He has spun some of the darkest and clearest street tales from the post-2000 New York state underground. The producer and rapper has collaborated extensively with fellow Upstaters Benny the Butcher and Che Noir, and he has recorded with DJ Premier, Ghostface Killah, and Kool G Rap as influences.
38 Spesh is a boom-bap disciple with over two dozen solo and collaborative projects, including Time Served (2012), Stabbed & Shot (2018), A Bullet for Every Heathen (2019), and 7 Shots (2022). He has spun some of the darkest and clearest street tales from the post-2000 New York state underground. The producer and rapper has collaborated extensively with fellow Upstaters Benny the Butcher and Che Noir, and he has recorded with DJ Premier, Ghostface Killah, and Kool G Rap as influences.
Cowboys of Cocaine
Rapper Spesh, formerly known as 38 Special, began his career in the early 2000s. He had an appearance on DJ Green Lantern’s mixtape Alive on Arrival (2006), which was produced by another Rochester native and early admirer. Spesh has been the featured artist on a few tapes given by Lantern at the end of that decade. After serving a few years in jail, the artist was released from prison in 2012 and began a series of ongoing studio work that lasted till the end of the decade. This was followed by Time Served. Spesh promoted artists on his TCF Music Group label through the Trust Tape series in addition to a plethora of solo releases. In earlier releases, he shared the bill with Joe Blow (In the Mob We Trust), Kool G Rap (the multigenerational Son of G Rap), and Benny the Butcher (Cocaine Cowboys and Stabbed & Shot). A Bullet for Every Heathen was the standout track on the few solo tapes that Spesh released to cap off his second decade of activity.
Blends of Speshal, Vol. 1
Spesh was particularly active in 2020, contributing to at least 10 releases in that year alone. He collaborated on multiple duo collaborations with artists like Che Noir and Planet Asia and released solo albums ranging from Interstate 38 to the instrumental collection Speshal Blends. In 2021, Spesh reunited with Benny the Butcher for Trust the Sopranos, and the following year, he released the single 7 Shots on his own. In 2023, Spesh remained active, collaborating with Grafh on Art of Words and Vic Spencer on Greenthumbs Meets Trigger Fingers.
