It’s Tuesday, which is my longest day of the work week. I’m tired but still got enough left in the tank to pass along this video from Detroit’s Finale, who I already know the majority of the innernuts slept on. Hopefully, with this song & video based on & inspired by The Wire, all you Silas Marner narcoleptics will be nudged into giving cat a try. Read the rest of this entry »

Between the failing automotive industry and record low seasons from their professional football team, the city of Detroit has more reasons than usual to feel hopeless during a recession. Sharing the same sense of disparity comes a rapper not afraid bank his aspirations on the power of alliteration: Finale. Planted firmly in the Motown music scene, his debut A Pipe Dream And A Promise features prominent beatsmiths such as Black Milk, Oddisee and of course his mentor J Dilla to deliver the soundtrack to his life as a wishful thinker thus far. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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. Read the rest of this entry »