Spec Boogie: Bed-Stuy's Latest Hip-Hop Protégé

Bedford-Stuyvesant has an uncanny ability to produce great emcees. Rising star Spec Boogie may be its next big protégé. 

Spec’s currently in Amsterdam shooting a music video for his new single “Brother’s Keeper” from his album "Introspective Boogie," which he released without a label. The video was directed by Yurena Asensio and produced by Marscha la Garnier and will be released in the coming month. 

While overseas, he has collaborated with artists in London and France, among other countries. In the spring, Spec will put those recordings on a mixtape tentatively titled "World Tourist."

When asked about his plans to return to Bed-Stuy, he said cryptically, “I’ll be back home when the time is right, but not before.”

Local resident Kenya Darlington, 17, can’t wait to see him live again in Brooklyn. 

“He’s good,” she said. “He speaks the truth. He says things that are real, that me and my friends can relate to.”

He was born in California in 1980 but moved to Bed-Stuy—where his father was from originally—when he was three years old.

“My cousin who lived upstairs from us was the neighborhood’s Hip-Hop DJ, so I’ve been listening to him spin since before I can remember,” said Spec.

He attended high school at P.S. 20 in nearby Clinton Hill. It was there, he said, he began writing his first rhymes.

“All we did at the lunch table was pass around black books and freestyle,” Spec recalled. Along with rapping, Spec also enjoyed drawing and making comic books. His passion for art, he says, saved him from a life of crime.

“I grew up in the 80’s so most of my friends sold crack, I just wasn’t interested in it because it had nothing to do with art.” At a young age, Spec found a way to profit from his drawings by selling them to people in the neighborhood. Many forwarded his pictures to loved ones who were incarcerated.

Despite steering clear of trouble during his teenage years, Spec’s life hasn’t been free of hardship.

“My mom passed away the year before I started making music and my dad passed away the year after,” he said, recalling those days as the scariest of his life.

In the time between their two deaths, Spec began writing rhymes—although they were hardly conventional. “I would rap about aliens and outer space,” he remembered. He’d play these early recordings for his father, who admitted he didn’t understand what Spec was talking about. He advised his son to “rap about things that people can understand and relate to,” which Spec has done artfully and explosively ever since.

He must’ve been thinking of his father’s words of wisdom when he penned his first single “Grow,” which earned him local and national acclaim. He attended The Art Institute of Philadelphia for two semesters, and when he returned to “The Stuy,” he noticed how much his neighborhood had changed from the early days of his youth. “Places I used to hang out were gone; friends and family were having kids; a couple of my friends had been locked up.  It was kind of overwhelming so I wrote it all out.”

He's also concerned about the gentrification of Bed-Stuy, but considers it part of the normal evolution of any neighborhood. “Bed-Stuy will keep changing,” he explained. However, he doesn’t like the “big ugly grey condos” that are being built or the fact that improvements to the neighborhood—bike lanes, for example—come only after “the third cool WiFi café” pops up.

Spec Boogie chafes at being called a “conscious rapper,” despite the fact that his lyrics in songs such as “Bed-Stuy” and “No Knocks” often address racism, corrupt politicking, and the normal police hassle.

“The only labels I care about,” Spec said decisively, “are ‘Good’ and ‘Bad.’  So call it what you want—just don’t call it wack.”

“Grow” established Spec's name and he’s gone on to perform onstage with legendary emcees such as KRS-One and Pete Rock. He’s still learning to hold his own amongst such heavyweights.

When asked what his worst show was, he humbly admitted, “I opened for [Big Daddy Kane] after I had a run of successful shows and I thought I was going to steal the show. But he put me in my place: He really made me feel like an opening act.”

With the recent release of his dynamic and thoughtful new album, "Introspective Boogie," Spec Boogie will get another chance to steal the show.