Originating from the birthplace of Hip-Hop; The Bronx, New York, producer and rapper Lord Finesse began his career during hip-hop’s golden era. In 1989 he and then partner DJ Mike Smooth signed to Wild Pitch Records and had several hit records. He went on to form underground crew ‘D.I.T.C.’ (Diggin’ In The Crates), whose members included hip-hop legends A.G & Showbiz, Diamond D and Big L.
As rapper he is probably best known for his 1995 classic ‘Hip 2 Da Game’ and his production credits are endless. With such a firm place in hip-hop history it was an honour to catch up with Lord Finesse for a chat about his current projects, his legendary collaborations and his thoughts on hip-hop today…
Q. Thanks for taking the time out to speak to us Lord Finese! Let’s start by talking about what projects you’re involved in at the moment…
Well, we just finished up the SB1200 project, which comes out sometime in July. Then after that is the Underboss project, new rhymes, new beats, new all that!
Q. So the SB1200 project is first? What does that involve?
I’m basically reawakening the SBS1200 project, you do have a wave and a surge of artists who love that sound, they call it the ‘awakening’ sound, the stuff I was doing back in ’95/’96. Those beats, that feel, I still have all my SB1200 discs, everything I used to create anything I ever did, I still have those discs, those are like my masters. I’m sitting on about 70–80 masters that have never been released beat wise, and to go in here and take out a batch of 13 joints and touch them up and put them out there to give people like a sound library of that SB1200, of that feel from the 90’s, let people vibe to that and see where it goes from there.
Q. You’ve done extensive work throughout your career as both a producer and a rapper. Do you prefer being in the studio or in the booth and on the mic?
I love music, I prefer being in the studio. Doing music gives me the chance to do all kind of things, in
Q. Coming from the Bronx, the birthplace of Hip-Hop, what was it like being around when it all started?
Well Hip-Hop is a culture, I grew up looking at the culture from the outside jams, to the graffiti, to the breakdancing, to the DJing, to the MCing, y’know when that started evolving, Hip-Hop…to look at that…to see them cutting breaks and grooves and making a culture out of the whole thing, it was definitely something I wanted to be involved in. It’s like, I can get into this and there’s no money required, no superpowers or nothing, I can just be a cool dude and put vocabulary together, or rhythms and grooves and be accepted and be a part of something that was so significant to the way of living at the time.
Q. It must have been a great time to be around!
It was incredible…to watch it slowly evolve from the 80s into the 90s, and the things that slowly came about during that time up until the 2000s, the music, the groves, everything about it, it was, and it IS phenomenal.
Q. A lot of what we hear on the radio today labelled as hip-hop, is so different from the original sound and has moved so far away from the original ethos of the movement. How do you feel about the state of hip-hop today?
I just think they’re taking out the hands of the people and the culture and it’s become such a multi-billion dollar industry. Rap…y’know, it’s not talking about hip-hop, they say it’s hip-hop but it’s more corporate, so you really focussing on a rap act. Anytime you telling people you don’t need the culture to be a star, or you don’t even need to know nothing about the culture, just do these records over these beats and these grooves and gimme my club record, gimme my radio record, that’s NOT hip-hop, you can say it’s hip-hop but that has nothing to do with a lot of the cultural part of hip-hop, y’know? It’s more corporate. That’s a lot of the arguments now days, where you get those true purists who love hip-hop and know it from the ground up and you got people who like rap and they like what’s going on with this new generation, and it always becomes a debate, and y’know, some people say, ‘well y’all don’t OWN hip-hop you trynna say what hip-hop is’…but I don’t debate nobody who knows hip-hop and understands hip-hop from a cultural aspect, then when you get in the game and become whatever you wanna become, I have no choice but to respect you cos at least you know what you’re getting into, at least you know the foundation. People who don’t know the foundation, I can’t respect you and act like you’re doing hip-hop when you don’t know the evolution of hip-hop. How can I respect you and say ‘you’re doing hip-hop’, that’s like a person saying ‘I wanna be a doctor and all I know is cough medicine and band aids’…NO, you gotta study, you gotta learn your art, it’s the same for whatever occupation you get into. Hip-Hop just happens to be a genre that you don’t have to study to get into, it’s easy to get into, but it doesn’t mean…as a professional of your craft…you shouldn’t research where it come from, the evolution of it all. It’s not like rock’n’roll, or country, or jazz…if you jump into rock they want you to be educated on what you getting into, you can’t get into rock and not know Bruce Springsteen, or the Eagles or Paul McCartney, you just won’t be accepted, period. Hip-Hop is the only genre where they allow that to happen and it’s cool and there are no consequences behind you not knowing the cultural part.
Why do you think there’s such a great divide between old skool and contemporary hip-hop?
When it becomes corporate and about money it’s hard, it’s all about making money, and the cultural stuff, the real gifted people are about the culture versus money. So there’s a definite divide, I just call it new wave and traditional blueprint. When it comes to beats and rhymes, and lyrics and content, that’s the traditional blueprint, when it comes to this new stuff right now where they don’t follow the rules and it’s just like this is what it is now, that’s new wave, I place it into two different categories. Me, I like the traditional blueprints, now it’s more like the corporate versus the art, the new wave.
Q. Are there any rappers at the moment that you like?
I mean, I’m a purist and a person that lives with high standards of the art. So I’m listening to the beats, I’m listening to the rhymes and a lot of artists aren’t the full package, I might like ‘em for one thing but not for the next, it’s not like full packages like when you heard Tribe Called Quest or Gang Starr and it was the all-round package…the songs, the music, the lyrics. Now you might have someone who got the lyrics but not the beats, or got the beats but don’t got the lyrics…there’s not a lot of full packages. But if I had to pick an artist…I like Jay Electronica. I could say Jay Electronica, I could say Joell Ortiz, but y’know that’s not really the latest artist, but that’s who I respect, y’know?
Q. Over the years you’ve worked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and some amazing artists, is there anybody who you could pinpoint as being the best?
(pause)…Naaaar…I mean the 3 top projects I’ve been on have all been blessings, it’s like you said, it’s like the cream of the crop with these people…discovering Big L, working with Notorious Big, y’know both of these artists aren’t around anymore, but they’re icons, real iconic figures in hip-hop. Then you say Dr Dre, like wow, to me…wow…working with him…I’m still speechless, I’m still trynna grasp it, y’know? I was with him about last year this time, we was working together, that’s like one of the top chefs in the world when it comes to music. The three figures Big L, Notorious B.I.G., Dre…I mean, there’s not too many other artists that are up that far.
Q. Is there anyone that you’d still really like to work with?
I mean I can look at artists that are up as far as those three… you can think of Nas…Jay‑Z…Tupac, but of course I couldn’t be able to work with him now…Eminem….those are iconic figures that I can look at and go, maybe I wanna work with them to add on to what I’ve done already but other artists….if I had to pick other artists then we goin’ into another genre…we goin’ to like Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder, y’know…Chaka Khan, Roy Ayres…these are artists that I still wanna work with. People might go ‘but they older?’…I don’t care, y’know? These are people that had a massive impact on music.
If artists like Big L and Notorious B.I.G. hadn’t passed, do you think they wouldv’e maintained they’re relevance?
Oh wow…I mean definitely he [Big L] would’ve maintained his relevance because he was so ahead of his time, but I think when you talk about losing people like Big L and Notorious Big and Tupac, these people was on top of their game!
How do you think hip-hop would be different today if artist like this were still around?
Well, like I say, these people was on top of their game, the standards of hip-hop would’ve stayed high, it wouldn’t be how it is now, it’s just so nursery rhyme-ish now. I think the standards have fallen. It’s crazy cos when I look at certain artists…and people say they the best or they the greatest…if I place them into my time in the 90s, these artists would be normal, they would be standard. Some would be good, but they wouldn’t be great, they’re labelled as extraordinary now because of the lack of quality in music.
Why do you think there’s such a great divide between old skool and contemporary hip-hop?
When it becomes corporate and about money it’s hard, it’s all about making money, and the cultural stuff, the real gifted people are about the culture versus money. So there’s a definite divide, I just call it new wave and traditional blueprint. When it comes to beats and rhymes, and lyrics and content, that’s the traditional blueprint, when it comes to this new stuff right now where they don’t follow the rules and it’s just like this is what it is now, that’s new wave, I place it into two different categories. Me, I like the traditional blueprints, now it’s more like the corporate versus the art, the new wave.
Micky Roots