38 Spesh

Some of the grimmest and most lucid street tales from the post-2000 New York state underground have been spun by 38 Spesh, 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). The rapper and producer has worked closely with fellow Upstate natives such as Benny the Butcher and Che Noir, and has recorded with influences including Kool G Rap, Ghostface Killah, and DJ Premier.
Spesh, originally known as 38 Special, has been rapping since the early 2000s. In 2006, he appeared on Alive on Arrival, a mixtape by early supporter and fellow Rochester product DJ Green Lantern. By the end of that decade, Spesh had headlined a couple Lantern-presented tapes. Imprisoned for a couple years, the artist returned in 2012 with Time Served starting a constant dispersal of studio projects that continued through the end of the 2010s. Along with numerous solo releases, Spesh showcased artists on his TCF Music Group label with the Trust Tape series. On other releases, he was co-billed with Benny the Butcher (Cocaine Cowboys and Stabbed & Shot), Joe Blow (In the Mob We Trust), and Kool G Rap (the cross-generational Son of G Rap). Spesh closed out his second decade of activity with a handful of solo tapes highlighted by A Bullet for Every Heathen.
Especially prolific in 2020, Spesh was behind at least ten titles that year alone, teaming with the likes of Che Noir and Planet Asia for numerous duo projects, and offering solo releases ranging from the instrumental set Speshal Blends to Interstate 38. Spesh linked again with Benny the Butcher for Trust the Sopranos in 2021, and the next year issued the solo 7 Shots. ~ Andy Kellman