Deem Spencer

Queens-based rapper Deem Spencer sees his records as snapshots. He explored a heartache-shaped persona on his 2019 full-length breakout, Pretty face. He dove headfirst into collaboration on the coming-of-age 2023 LP, adultSW!M, followed by a pair of “one producer, no features” EPs in 2024 and 2025, returning to the bold, instinctual simplicity of his DIY days. Each release brings self-discovery, evolved musicality, and, he adds with playful resignation, “pain and the people around me.” The phrase strikes him as a summary for love and life as an artist, for the flourishes of beauty and disappointment that color the human experience. Pain & the people around me, his new LP on art-forward label drink sum wtr, finds Deem at his best above sharp and vibrant instrumentation, reaching across genres for redemption, heartfirst and with crystalline precision. “This album is the clearest I've ever sounded. The clearest I've ever executed my vision,” he says. “I feel realized as an artist. I'm a fan of mine all over again.”