Playlist: The Best of Vic Spencer (@VicSpencer) (89 Tracks)

“I basically want to bring back that integrity to the game, rather than my music being based on what’s hot right now. I believe that in music you have to do things to get people to like you. But for some, it just takes longer. It’s not the same as it used to be. You have to consider a rapper like me being an old school Chevy which takes a long time to be built and rebuilt to be able to compete with these Euro cars. That’s what I think about the rap game now. There are a lot of Euro cars in the game.” -Vic Spencer describing his rapping style in a 2014 interview

Chicago’s own Vic Spencer has rapping since he was 17 as part of a group called Uhlich Voices. emulating his heroes, rappers like Redman, Sean Price, DJ Quik, MC Breed, MF Doom, DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia.

Before joining the group, Vic Spencer has been placed into different foster homes since he was 7-years-old due to his parents being drug addicts and unable to care for him. 

in a 2014 interview with hip-hop website Pigeons and Planes Vic Spencer described how it was like being raised by his parents who were addicted to drugs.

“My mom and my dad, they were drug addicts. I found out about this as the years went by. I remember this story vividly. I was on a big wheel—maybe like one o’ clock in the morning. I was about seven years old and the police asked me, ‘What’s going on? Why you outside?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ They asked me where my mom and dad was. And I said, ‘I don’t know.’ They found them both intoxicated.”

After this tragic scene Vic was soon taken into foster care and became a ward of the state (“From then on, they kept me and my siblings—I’m the youngest of four—until court for foster relative care. So we went to court, and, as my mom told me, my dad said, “I don’t want nothing to do with it.” And he left out of the court room. That left my grandma on my mom’s side to take care of us. She took us in. “)

When Vic Spencer turned 17, was approached  by the CEO of Group House Music to be  part of Uhlich Voices. (“That was like my real first deal. We went all across the country with it too. We were in D.C., Kentucky, California. We went to maybe seven different states and did a lot of things locally.“)

When Vic Spencer turned 19, he decided to pursue a solo music career. Since 2009 Vic Spencer has released countless one-off’s, 5 studio albums and several mixtapes.

On January 30, Vic Spencer released his groundbreaking 5th studio album. Vic Spencer draws from hip-hop he grew up listening to while in his teens (E-mu SP 1200 drum sounds, turntable scratces, heavy sampling, drum loop/break)

Vic Spencer’s “The Cost of Victory” now available on iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, Amazon and download at http://vicspencer.bandcamp.com/.

Follow Vic Spencer Online:

Audiomack: http://www.audiomack.com/artist/perpetual-rebel

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VicSpencer

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/vicspencer

Bandcamp: http://vicspencer.bandcamp.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/VicSpencerVisuals1