Rochester is not a city regularly associated with Hip-Hop. This Upstate New York burg is the home of DJ Green Lantern, who, along with Emilio Rojas, is one of the few artists from the area to make an impact on the game in the last two decades. But that is all changing with MCs like Eto, Pounds, Rigz, and especially 38 Spesh shaking up the scene in the last couple of years.

For those not familiar with Spesh, he actually entered the game almost 15 years ago, and became well known for anchoring Green Lantern mixtapes with street-struck demonstrations. However, he stepped away from rapping when Trap’s popularity rose. 38 reestablished himself in the streets, but around 2016 he started to see his homies like Benny The Butcher start to buzz. B.E.N.N.Y. had been signed to Special’s TCF Music Group before he moved over to Griselda Records.

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This Flour City lyricist made a big splash last year by dropping no less than three collaboration albums. He teamed up with Buffalo badman Benny (Stabbed & Shot), Oakland mainstay Joe Blow (In The Mob We Trust), and most notably, he dropped a project with the legendary Kool G. Rap (Son Of G Rap), which impressed many fans of both.

In 2019, Spesh is out to make it readily apparent that he is one of the nicest on the mic and the MPC alike. He’s doing so by dropping a grip of projects. He has already released the 5 Shots EP, which he produced all of, and more importantly his highly anticipated 38 Strategies Of Raw, a follow up to his other Robert Greene-inspired full-length, 38 Laws Of Powder. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as he also has a compilation on the way from him and his TCF roster, the debut album from his female artist Che Noir, and he recently announced that a joint offering with D.I.T.C production is on the way.

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The Trust Comes First CEO just hit Heads with the video for “Dark Nights,” and it perfectly illustrates his premier penmanship and laid back beats. The visuals highlight Rochester at the dead of night, while Spesh stunts in a hooded fur coat. From under the opulent cowl he raps, “See, I motivate black folks / To eat natural, stay away from meat and lactose / If it’s heat, we a clap toast / Keep that close / 150 shots at most / And I shoot for your afro / I learned the game from ni**as that’s on top, but they act broke / You get smoked for a pair of Nikes / ‘Cause you a parasite / You die easy, like Eric Wright / We read books when we wearing stripes / When you cherish life, you turn prison cells to a paradise / I came up from a pair of dice / Now I find myself preparing for flights, going anywhere I like / I’ma 1000 degrees Fahrenheit / But you compare us…like ni**as ain’t broke wearing generic ice.”

After years of paying dues, 38 Spesh is locked and loaded.