Nestled in a corner of Suffolk University’s downtown campus, Ryan Peters, or better known by rapper persona Spose, missed 15 calls from a New York phone number. It was Universal Republic Records offering Peters, a young father and off-the-beaten-path student a record deal. 

By answering that call, Spose was solidified as a success story of MTV-era fame, but Peters was emboldened as an opportunity-chasing creative.

Peters hopped a plane that day in 2010, and didn’t finish his degree, instead thrusting himself into a world of fame for a whirlwind year that changed his career. It wasn’t until Nov. 13, that he returned to Suffolk’s campus, this time, with over 110,000 monthly listeners, 50 million streams on Spotify and four children. Hosted by Suffolk in the Hub and Professor Kimberly Ring, Peters made his way back to Suffolk as a unique story out of the school.

While Peters may not be a Suffolk alum, only having two classes left in his undergraduate studies as an English major, the Boston campus and the lessons learned in the department were some of the most influential to his writing, and it all came down to the lesson that what he was writing wasn’t “approximating real life,” it was exacting it.

“I was in Bryan Trabold’s class on creative writing, and he wanted us to go out in public and eavesdrop and write down what we hear in a conversation,” said Peters. “As a writer, you know, the best writing is the truth. You know what they say is like, truth is stranger than fiction.”

Peters had been taking that advice since middle school, where in Wells, Maine, he started rapping, as well as getting his hands into the thick of writing where he could. Doing newspaper advertisements and music reviews for The Weekly Sentinel, he was observing the rural landscape of New England through any imaginative lens he could find since he was young.

That natural ambition to pick up a creative trade carried to Suffolk, where he hosted a radio show titled “Flash Flood” with WSFR, wrote for The Suffolk Journal and connected with other musicians looking for collaborations. And in everything, he was finding the creative opportunity, producing the intro and curating music for his radio segment and writing music reviews.

Peters never really intended to make his hobbies into a career, but he took on the entrepreneurship mindset on Suffolk’s campus. Suffolk did prove to be a point of conception for the artistry of Spose. Peters was writing the stories of Wells, Maine and the B branch of the Green Line in the margins of his notebooks.

“In the margins is like rhymes or a tracklist or a little sketch of the album cover or what a show poster would look like,” said Peters. “I couldn’t get it off my mind, I guess, even though I was pursuing a traditional route.”

The story of Spose is anything but traditional, though. Peters may have been an artist that was holed up in classrooms and confined to notebook pages for his prose, but he also was finding his footing as a father. Originally, Peters left Suffolk before completing his bachelors to raise a child with his girlfriend up in Maine, and came back to Suffolk, 23-years-old, with a 1-year-old at home and still making mixtapes.

Instead of fronting a $700 rent for his Allston apartment, he printed CD’s of his first album “Preposterously Dank,” that he passed out to Suffolk students, and mailed to select radio stations. It was moves like this that got him the recognition that pushed him into the limelight while studying at Suffolk.

Sitting in an English class with Professor Trabold, Peters saw his album break the Top 10 Best Selling Local Albums at a Bull Moose record store. Sitting at number nine, “Presposterously Dank,” wasn’t outselling that generation’s anthem album, but it was a sign of something real for Peters.

“To be in the top 10 local albums, you sell like 14. You know, you could be like number one if you sell 30, but I was [on it],” said Peters. “I looked and I saw it and I was like number nine on this list and I’m at Suffolk, and so at that moment I’m like, oh, I’m like, really doing it.”

Getting a hometown hit was the start of something bigger, the grind turned into Peters’ second album “We Smoked It All,” and his biggest hit to date, “I’m Awesome.” The radio play that single ensured was enough to jumpstart a career that would transcend the New England hometown stereotype. It was mere days after getting the calls from Universal Republic Records that Peters ended up in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ office in New York City, being pitched a life of fame.

“It was like 72 hours between me getting the phone call and ending up in New York City getting offered this,” said Peters. “23 at the time feels like you’re such an adult and you can make these super adult decisions.”

Peters was at a turning point, where the life his years of mixing, recording and hustling had landed him were directly contrasting his reality. In the blink of an eye, the identity of Spose was being juggled with a college dropout background, a 1-year-old daughter and an uprooted Maine local who was testing MTV pilots and planning a total MySpace rebrand.

“I’m having the existential crisis, I want to be out with my friends, and I want to also go on a road trip across the country and I’m kind of mad that I’m forced to be a dad which is maybe shameful to say,” said Peters.

At the whim of a record label now, the interviews, radio play and success seemed to flood in. With the backing of an industry conglomerate, Spose was a success story overnight, but was lost after only a year.

The facade of fame came crashing down when, in true New England fashion, the Spose brand, and Peters as an artist, received the call that his contract was cut in a Dunkin’.

“After I’d spent like, all year trying to make this album and like the album was coming out in July. They made posters, Spose out on July 24. So I went from leaving Suffolk, being temporarily, like, rich or famous, sure that this sh*t was going to be the rest of my life. It would just always be like this, I was going to be on MTV. I was set to ‘I’m running out of money — what am I going to do with my life?’” said Peters.

All of this career shift was sparked by a cultureshift in digital media. Spose was conceived from the likes of early 2000’s and 2010’s stars like Eminem and Beyonce, but a smaller-artist fan base shifting to modern media was a transition that Peters’ rap persona couldn’t survive. The fan base that remained after the album rollout was cut short was small, but has sustained shows for Peters until this day.

“It was literally just whoever the 1% of people who stayed living from ‘I’m Awesome,’ were still following on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter,” said Peters.

Spose has found a new home in the music and creative scene since, though. With those remaining loyal fans and newly garnered ones, he had continued to perform and make music. The creator economy of today’s music landscape is one Peters avoided until recently, where he is taking a chance on Instagram and TikTok to promote his work.

But while a hit was worth 99 cents on iTunes streaming, even a loyal monthly listener base can’t produce the revenue before the streaming age.

Peters took the income redirection as an opportunity to harness all of the creativity that has been the core of his ambitions. With an entrepreneurial mindset and an album titled “Preposterously Dank,” the answer for Peters was a marijuana line that he has curated an image of up in Maine. Peters designs the packaging for the line, “Preposterously,” a skill that Suffolk can “lowkey” take credit for.

But music stays a part of Peters’ life regardless of his side hustles and role as a dad. From fans across the country to overseas in London, every small town and city is just like Wells, Maine.

“I thought by repping Wells, Maine, the only people who would get it were people from places like Wells and Kennebunk,” said Peters. “Then it was like, ‘Oh, you relate ‘cause you’re also from a small town.’ And then I go out on tour years later, and I’m in Wisconsin and they are like ‘this is just like my town,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, every small town is Wells, Maine.’”

The universal experiences painted in Peters’ lyrics are inherently his stories, exacting his ride home to Allston on track “Going Home,” or recounting his first car and trips home on payday in his “‘03 Altima” in lyricism and production. The authenticity of his artistry is exactly what has worked for the Spose brand until this moment. Painting a picture of New England that transcends the little corner of the U.S. is the reality of the Spose mindset. Peters preaches authenticity because it is what brought him his life’s greatest successes, and that success was without a degree from Suffolk.

“I didn’t graduate from Suffolk, I dropped out to have a baby, I came back with a 1-year-old to finish my degree and I ended up getting text messages from a record label,” said Peters. “There’s unconventional paths, and your 20s are a sh*t show. So be authentically you, I think that the biggest thing is if you can be authentically you, you attract the right things.”