You probably hadn’t heard of Finale prior to his A Pipe Dream And A Promise release. He didn’t have the blog buzz, he wasn’t throwing out music for free as fast as he could record it, and he wasn’t forcing himself onto the masses in an effort to win folks over with everything but music. Instead, he has utilizing the the Bob Wylie approach; taking it one step at a time ensuring that each move is correct and not premature. It’s a method the Detroit native has used throughout his career, which as he describes in this interview is one unique to the rest of his peers in Rap.

Finale’s patience and self-discipline laid the foundation for his debut, the bluntly titled A Pipe Dream And A Promise. Recorded over a 5 year period the album plays out like a meticulously crafted collage. Boasting a dream team of producers from Nottz, Dilla, Flying Lotus, Black Milk, Oddisee and others there is surprisingly high level of cohesion that carries throughout, which is a direct reflection of Finale’s vision. The same precision carries into his lyrics, with each word in each bar playing a specific position and covering a wide range of topics rooted in reality. All the elements of a great album are in place, and it’s just a matter of time before listeners catch on. If it happened over night it wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be Finale.

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TSS: I gotta kick it off with the most basic question; what originally sparked your interest in Hip-Hop?

Finale: I used to write a lot. All the way through High School I was always writing, but not even rap lyrics. But uh, after I graduated High School I went to Morehouse. When I was out there I linked up with a crew called who now goes by Shaman Works. I don’t really do the whole crew thing, but that’s my family. They showed me the ropes and taught me how to write bars and structure songs. That’s when I fell in love with rhyming and that’s when I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I remember someone gave me a tape of OC’s Jewelz and I just listened to that non stop for like two semesters straight. That album really made me want to write.

TSS: So it all went down in Atlanta not Detroit?

Finale: Yeah, but I was always a fan of Hip-Hop I just didn’t see it as an avenue for me. But yeah I wasn’t freestlying or anything like that until college.

TSS: You mentioned you were already a writer, did rhyming come easy to you or did it take a lot of work to adjust to that form of writing?

Finale: It took a lot of work, but I think I learned the ropes fairly quickly. Having a writing background, you know I was writing a lot of poetry and stuff like that, I kinda taught myself and did my homework. I went back and studied, really studied the cats that came before me and learned how to attack a song and structure songs. I gradually got better; you know you start rapping fast and doing the battle raps, and then after that I had to make that choice if I was going to battle rap my whole life or if I was I going to sit down and write songs. I just made sure I made the right steps.

TSS: What brought you to Morehouse?

Finale: The high school I went to had majors, like you choose what you want to do, and my major was drafting. I was supposed to play ball and I went down there for that. I got injured, typical story, and couldn’t play so…

TSS: I don’t know if this is a stretch, but is there a connection to how you would approach a drafting project to how you write your songs?

Finale: I do spend a lot of time making sure my rhymes are technically correct and that the words are in place the same why the numbers and lines need to exact in drafting. You know in drafting, if one thing is off the whole thing is out of wack. I make sure that every bar flows with the next one, so yeah it did make me pay attention to every line.

TSS: So what happens next after you finished up at Morehouse?

Finale: I actually didn’t finish up at Morehouse. I had to come back to Detroit and I ended up getting a job at Chrysler, throwing axles on buses and minivans and all that.

TSS: Did you come back to Detroit with the mindset of setting it off on the Hip-Hop tip?

Finale: Nah, not at all. I took a two year break. I did that to get work experience under my belt so that if rap didn’t work out I wanted something to fall back on. Once I set myself up right on the scene, I gave myself six months to give Hip-Hop a go. If it didn’t pan out, I would just go back to the 9-5, and here I am now.

TSS: Alright, so you’re back in Detroit working the 9-5, but rhyming wasn’t really something you were pursuing in the city?

Finale: I actually had myself set up overseas first if you go back and look. I was testing the waters over there first while I was still learning. I put out a record with a kid from Scottland named Stereotype. Then I put out a joint called “Alien Invasion” produced by this dude named Ghost out in the UK. Both of those were on vinyl. I was just making sure I got my sound together, and once I got those records and the reviews came out I felt like I was ready. I was real nervous and wasn’t comfortable with my style. I just wasn’t confident to run up in the club and claim I was the best rapper. There were levels I still had to get to, there still are levels I have to get to now.

TSS: Did the nature of the Detroit scene prevent you from coming out and putting yourself out there more from the gate?

Finale: Yeah, in Detroit the door is kinda closed but kinda cracked a little bit. I think as a city we chose to stay on the low and simmer and when we feel like it’s time we just hit you. That’s why you see this wave of Detroit artists right now.

TSS: What was your first move stepping out within the city?

Finale: The first move was just planting my feet in the scene. I was away for so long, and even before I went to Atlanta I hadn’t even stepped onto the scene. When I did come back and step out, nobody knew who I was. I started hitting the Open Mics real heavy, like the Lush Lounge and that’s where I met cats like Guilty Simpson, Black Milk and Hex. Then I went out to Pontiac to Crazy Moe’s and that’s where I met Decompoze, who was the first producer from Detroit to fuck with me, and One.Be.Lo was the first to open me up to performing. I went to Ann Arbor and met Invincible. I made sure to keep my name in different circles, and I didn’t want to box myself in. Detroit has a lot of circles and a lot of boxes, like certain cliques don’t mess with certain cliques. I wanted to be the person that could go to each circle and be neutral and cool with everybody.

TSS: What year are we talking about?

Finale: This was like 1999-2002

TSS: So this was way before any of those names that you just mentioned were known outside of the city.

Finale: Yeah, I mean we all came up together, from the highs and lows. It’s been a crazy ride for everybody so it’s good to see everybody getting their shine.

TSS: Jumping ahead to the present, let’s talk about the album, A Pipe Dream And A Promise, your official domestic debut. It’s a great album lyrically, but the beats man! You’ve definitely got the ear.

Finale: (Laughs) Thanks. Yeah, A Pipe Dream And A Promise is a collection of records that I did with producers I know. I didn’t go out with budget and fly all over the world and buy beats up. I got to work with Nottz personally, we did like 4 or 5 joints. I got to work with Dilla, and it’s just one of 4 or 5 joints I did with him. Me and Black did a couple joints. Every producer I could call right now and it’s all good. So yeah, A Pipe Dream and A Promise is like 5 years in the making.

TSS: That’s crazy, because to me one of the most impressive things about the album is the cohesiveness of it. It sounds like you really chose each beat in order to complement the next.

Finale: Well, that was half of it. There are some newer stuff like the Wajeed joint. So it was taking songs from that 5 year span but also recording new stuff and filling in the gaps. That was the hard part.

TSS: Has the idea and concept of the title A Pipe Dream And A Promise always been the theme throughout that 5 year span.

Finale: I’ve always wanted to name a project that, it’s always been in my head. It’s my definition of Hip-Hop. The pipe dream is just making it in Hip-Hop. The promise is like the artists promises to him or herself to keep pushing throughout and promising things like, “once I get on I’ll buy my girl a house.” It’s a very personal project. I address everybody. I made it general in a way that I felt people could relate when they listen track by track.

TSS: Two of my favorite cuts are the more personal cuts: “Issues” and “My Brothers Keeper.” Were songs like those hard for you to write? And did you learn anything about yourself while writing those songs?