Ryan Michael Peters (born July 1, 1985), better known by the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Spose, is an American rapper from

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

Early life

Peters was born in Portland, Maine. He grew up in

Wells, Maine Wells is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. Founded in 1643, it is the third-oldest town in Maine. The population was 11,314 at the 2020 census. Wells Beach is a popular summer destination. History The Abenaki Indians calle ...

. Although he began rapping in

eighth grade Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...

, he did not pursue it as a career until after he graduated from

Wells High School Wells High School is a public school located in Wells, Maine, United States. It has an enrollment of 450 students in grades 9 through 12. The school primarily serves students from Wells, as well as a small number of students from Ogunquit, Maine ...

in 2004. As a youth, started a rock band, The Frothy Four. Peters attended

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

as an English major and later transferred to

Suffolk University Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. With 7,560 students (includes all campuses, 7,379 at the Boston location alone), it is the eighth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a l ...

; however, he was offered a record deal when he was two classes from graduating and did not finish.

Music career

Adopted the stage name Spose, he self-released his first album, ''

Preposterously Dank ''Preposterously Dank'' is the first self-released solo debut studio album by American rapper Spose, released on April 22, 2008. The album was released under Frothy Four Records (Spose's record label). He continued to work selling lobster at the Barnacle Billy's restaurant in

Ogunquit Ogunquit ( ) is a resort town in York County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,577. Ogunquit is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Ogunquit, which means "beau ...

. Spose released the ''

We Smoked It All ''We Smoked It All'' is a 2009 collaboration mixtape by rappers Spose and Cam Groves Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all Eukaryo ...

'' mixtape with rapper

Cam Groves Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all Eukaryote, eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the Second messenger system, sec ...

in 2009. In January 2010, his single, "

I'm Awesome "I'm Awesome" is a song written and recorded by American hip hop artist Spose. The single (music), single debuted at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on March 25, 2010, and reached #37 in its fourth week on the chart. Th ...

" (from his ''We Smoked it All'' mixtape), received airplay on

radio stations. In February 2010, after the song caught on in other parts of the US, Spose signed a record deal with Universal Republic Records and announced that he would begin working on a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

. In March 2010, the video was filmed in Wells at the town-owned activity center where Spose had his first concert at the age of 24. The video was released on April 14, 2010. "I'm Awesome" peaked at #37 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "I’m Awesome" brought about his comedy hip hop style. Spose later stated in an interview with that he had left Universal in late 2010 without releasing anything with the label. On October 25, 2010, Spose announced through a series of

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

posts (which were linked to

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

) that he felt that ''We Smoked It All Vol. 2'' had too many original songs to be considered a mixtape. Partially because of this, he decided to create a project, ''Happy Medium'', with many original songs that were originally supposed to be on ''We Smoked It All Vol. 2'', in addition to other material. He also said that new songs from ''Happy Medium'' would be released at 4:20 PM Eastern Time every Wednesday up until the release of ''Happy Medium''. On December 17, 2010, Spose released ''Happy Medium'' for

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

on his Facebook page. The physical album was released in

Bull Moose Music Bull Moose is an independent retailer and record store chain based in Portland, Maine, USA. The chain has operated since 1989 and has eight locations in Maine and three in New Hampshire. History Bull Moose was founded by Brett Wickard in ...

stores in late December 2010, and it was released on iTunes in January 2011. ''We Smoked It All Vol. 2'' was released intentionally on April 20, 2011, at midnight. Spose has a part in "Red Cup (I Fly Solo)" by

Cash Cash Cash Cash is an American electronic music group from Roseland, New Jersey. The group consists of three DJs / musicians: brothers Jean Paul Makhlouf, Alex Makhlouf and Samuel Frisch. They produce, record, mix and master all their music together a ...

and "Better Side of Me" by

Sparks the Rescue Sparks the Rescue is an American rock band from Maine. They formed when members of three high school bands, Pozer, Short of April, and Two Girls Later, converged. Their debut EP, ''Stumbling Skyward,'' was released independently in 2005 with McA ...

. Spose announced in an interview with

92.3 Now WINS-FM (92.3 MHz) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. WINS-FM simulcasts an all-news radio format branded as "1010 WINS on 92.3 FM"; with the call sign phonetically pronounced as "wins". The station ...

that he had left

Universal Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

. In January 2012, "I'm Awesome" became the theme to the comedy series ''

Mr. D ''Mr. D'' is a Canadian television series starring comedian Gerry Dee. The series follows the misadventures of an underqualified schoolteacher named Gerry Duncan, nicknamed Mr. D. It debuted on CBC on January 9, 2012 and concluded after eight s ...

''. Spose released the music video for his single "Pop Song" on February 22, 2012. He released his third album ''The Audacity!'', on April 16, 2012, on iTunes. On October 24, 2012, Spose launched a

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

fundraiser on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

.com to raise $25,000 to fund ''The Yard Sale''. It was funded on November 23, 2012, raising $28,147. ''The Peter Sparker Mixtape'' was released as a free download on June 10, 2013. Deluxe physical copies were sold at bullmoose.com. ''Dankonia'', a mixtape entirely over Outkast instrumentals (with other connections to Outkast, such as the album title, named after ''

Stankonia ''Stankonia'' is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on October 31, 2000, by LaFace Records. The album was recorded in the duo's recently purchased Atlanta recording facility Stankonia Studios, which allowed ...

'', which also shares the same release date as ''Dankonia'') was released for free on October 31, 2013. A physical copy was released in limited numbers on bullmoose.com on November 5, and the ''Almost Complete Lyrics Book'' was released on November 29, also on the BullMoose website. Spose released his fourth studio album, ''Why Am I So Happy'', in 2015. On April 4, 2017, he released his fifth album, ''Good Luck With Your Life'', locked in a mobile game ''The King Of Maine'' with an extra song, "I Wanna Keep It."

Personal life

As of 2015, Spose has four children, including a set of twins, with his long term partner turned wife, K.P.

Discography

;Studio albums ;Collaboration albums * ''We Smoked It All Vol. 3: The Album'' (with Cam Groves) * ''We Smoked It All Vol. 4'' (with Cam Groves) ;Compilation albums * ''

The Yard Sale ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

'' (2012) ;Mixtapes * ''

'' (2009) (with Cam Groves) * ''We Smoked It All Vol. 2'' (2011) (with Cam Groves) * '' The Peter Sparker Mixtape'' (2013) * '' Dankonia'' (2013) ;Live albums * ''Spose Unplugged'' (2013) ;Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spose 1985 births East Coast hip hop musicians Living people Musicians from Portland, Maine People from Wells, Maine Rappers from Maine 21st-century American rappers