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  Lord Finesse Interview
interview 0315 added 18.06.05 words: 563
technical:
QED
A founding member of super-group Diggin’ In The Crates,
acclaimed producer, emcee and DJ, Lord Finesse is a Hip Hop
legend. He’s worked with some of Hip Hop’s heavyweights,
including Notorious BIG, KRS One, Dr Dre, Brand Nubian, DJ
Premier and Large Professor and he discovered Big L.
It’s been a minute since Finesse last made it over the pond to
perform to the British crowds, so when he performed at Dingwalls
in Camden last month, 563 jumped at the opportunity to chat with
the man for UKHH.com.
The interview took place directly after Lord Finesse’s
impressive stage show, and, due to a lack of time, was conducted
alongside the boys from Hip Hop Connection.
563: How’s the tour been going?
 Lord Finesse: Man, the tour’s been incredible. The love and
support I get over here, whether it’s Europe or the UK, it’s
been incredible, you know? ‘Cause they understand and appreciate
what’s real Hip Hop and they love and respect the energy that I
try to bring every night, you know?
I heard the Amsterdam show was real live.
Lord Finesse: I mean, any time you could get me and DJ Premier
on the same stage in one night and niggas wasn’t expecting, of
course it can’t be nothing but live, so, if you love my show,
with him on it, it was crazy, and then like after my event in
the Milkyway, we went over, he was playing some afterspot, and I
went and hosted his party and had fun. I partied till like 5, 6
in the morning. I ain’t partied like that in a while.
Can you explain the difference between D.I.T.C. and Wildlife?
Lord Finesse: Okay, D.I.T.C. you know the original members, me,
Show & AG, Fat Joe, Diamond, OC, Big L, Buckwild. You know
everybody knows those members. When we did the Wildlife thing,
we was doing some new records, but we ain’t wanna call it Diggin
In The Crates ‘cause people always affiliate Diggin In the
Crates with old, like ‘oh that’s them old dudes’, and we had new
members and we wanted to do like a offspring type of thing.
Wildlife still exists. If you see I got that shit tattooed on my
arm. It exists, but like I said, it’s just a reinvention of
Diggin In The Crates. Diggin In The Crates is the foundation,
you know. But, you know, there’s gonna come a time where I gotta
hang it up, we all gotta hang it up and we’re gonna have to set
a platform for the new, younger generation that we’re
discovering in Wildlife as a thing.
You came over on Ice T’s Rhyme Syndicate tour in Sheffield, a
long time ago. What’s changed for Finesse since then?
Lord Finesse: A lot. First of all, I’m my own man right now. I
mean, I DJ, I produce, I done learnt so much since those days. I
wish I had the talent and ability to put on the show I did
tonight in those days. It would’ve been incredible, but it was
still a learning process for me. It was a lotta progression of
technology, and the way I perform now is like way more
incredible than I was then. I was still learning. That was my
first tour I was ever on and I still gotta give it up for Ice T
for even bringing me out here to give me that experience and
make me to become the artist that I am, ‘cause I think once
people get out they hood and they neighbourhood and come out
here and experience different… I mean, just the whole thing. I
mean I was on that Farrakhan shit when I came out here. I was
listening to Farrakhan tapes and e’rything and I come out on the
stage, and you know, that’s the attitude I’m taking. I’m
thinking, you know, ‘White man is devil and Black man is God’
and the stage open and there’s 3000 people singing my words song
for song. That’ll fuck a person up. It’ll send you back home
with a whole new, different attitude. And I experienced how
people live all around the world and once you experience things
you don’t wanna hang out on the corner no more. You don’t wanna
drink 40’s. You don’t wanna do that neighbourhood shit no more.
You just seen London. You seen Sweden. You seen Amsterdam. You
seen Germany. You seen some shit, so to see the hood, you’re
like ‘Where the fuck we going next?’ you know?
So, you’re about to drop your new LP, “The Underboss”.
Lord Finesse: Yeah.
"...Nobody was kicking no punch line or metaphors like me and
Big L was. Now the whole game’s punch line and metaphors. The
whole game. The whole game..."
Can you tell us what we can expect from that?
Lord Finesse: “The Underboss” is actually a documentary slash
soundtrack. The same people that I just did the SBX on DVD with
will be editing that new documentary. It’s gonna take a while.
This whole summer I just started running round, catching up with
mad rappers and interview mad people. As far as footage, you’re
gonna see footage all the way from like 1989 all the way up
‘till now, you know. You know, some people do documentaries and
stuff and try to film all the new shit and tell they story, but
there’s nothing like using old footage to tell you what it was
like. You can see what people was wearing, how people was
looking. I got footage of when Puff Daddy had the big flat-top
and He ain’t look like the P Diddy of now, I’m serious man. It’s
on that 15 minute trailer on the Roc Raida exclusive edition
mix-tape that we’re putting out. You’ll see some footage on
there.
When you came out, it was Lord Finesse & Mike Smooth. You had
Premo on the beats, you had Showbiz on the beats.
 Lord Finesse: And Diamond.
Did you need Mike Smooth, or was it all about, back then the
whole ‘Emcee & a DJ’? You had to have a DJ.
Lord Finesse: It ain’t even the fact that you had to have a DJ,
it’s the fact that I grew up with Mike Smooth. Mike Smooth was
more to me than just a DJ, he was one of my closest friends so
when I entered the game I wanted him to be a part of it with me,
you know. Preem was there and you had, you know, Diamond and you
had Show, but Mike Smooth has always been like a big brother to
me all throughout my life. Still to this day, you know, we still
speak, we still kick it, and that’s still my dog.
He had a job, didn’t he?
Lord Finesse: Yeah, he had a good job. Shit, that job lasted all
this shit. He still got that job. He’s probably like, one of the
head commissioners of the Parks department right now, so he’s
making an easy six figures, you know.
Are you still in contact with him?
Lord Finesse: Yeah, all the time. He’s in Texas right now.
You were supposed to release an album called “The Underworld
Experience” - did that ever get recorded?
Lord Finesse: What happened with that album was, I was getting
ready to record that “Underworld Experience”. I had just came
from Cali. I was working with Dr Dre, just finished “The Chronic
2001” album, and I was getting ready to work on my project. He
was gonna be a part of that and Tommy Boy pulled all the
financial support from Penalty and mainly made them go under. So
my budget was there and I started recording, but, you know, it
just never happened. Matter of fact, “the Message” that I did
for Dr Dre was one of the songs from my album, so, you know.
You started rapping when you were 14, yeah?
Lord Finesse: Yeah.
Can you remember the first time you ever picked up a mic?
Lord Finesse: First time I picked up a mic was in a club called
3-71. Diamond took me there. It was me, Diamond and Master Rob
of the Ultimate Force Crew, and they dragged me out there. My
first show was at 2 in the morning and that’s the first time I
ever really performed.
"...Now
when a major labels get rid of the subsidiary labels, who are
gonna go in the hood and find the dope talent? These high class
bougie people in record labels ain’t going to no fucking
hood..."
Were you nervous?
Lord Finesse: Hell yeah. I was 14, 15 years old. I was real
nervous. I was probably 16 or 17, but I was still nervous.
How did it go?
Lord Finesse: It went well.
You got the buzz and thought ‘I can do this for life’?
 Lord Finesse: You know, I mean, as you go on your skills
progress and you learn different shit and, yeah. It’s like a
boxer, when you in the ring and you stay knocking niggas out and
a nigga ain’t knock you out of course your ego gonna keep
getting bigger and bigger and, you know. Fortunately I was never
knocked out, so.
You beat Mikey D in the New Music Seminar.
Lord Finesse: Yeah. I was scared again. Once again. I’m in the
Seminar, and I’m battling some dude that done won the whole shit
the year before, I’m fucking terrified. I’m thinking it’s
rigged, that niggas don’t want me to get to the next round, and
I beat this dude. Yeah, my ego went through the roof then, but
you know, it was cool though. I ain’t won the whole thing, but…
You beat Mikey D, back when he was the champ…
Lord Finesse: Exactly, it’s like, you know, you might not’ve won
the title, but you beat a real worthy opponent, you know. An
extremely worthy opponent.
So, you’ve got “The Funky Technician Remix” project coming out
soon.
Lord Finesse: That’ll be out by about like the end of July. I
gotta finish that up as soon as I check back down in New York.
Premo just did his interlude for me, AG just did this interlude
for me. I got like maybe 3 to 4 more remixes, then I’ll be done.
There’s just a quality control situation - a lot of producers
promised to be on this project and I thought it was gonna be
assets and a lot of ’em became liabilities, so, it’s a quality
control thing, and, I dunno, it’s a lot of pressure on me, as
it’s my first album and when you’re tampering with such shit,
you know, it puts a little chill in your body like ‘damn, I just
hope people like this shit’, you know.
What made you want to revisit the album?
Lord Finesse: It started off where I was just creating a whole
instrumental album, from that album. Like instrumentals of that
whole first album, and Buckwild said ‘man, if you remix it, why
don’t you do some remixes of these old songs’, so I was like,
‘aight, I’m gonna try it’. It’s some shit. Large Professor hit
me with a mean joint. I performed the Premo joint tonight,. It’s
gonna be some shit on there, you know. There’s definitely some
shit on there.
"...People like Rakim, KRS One, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, the
Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC. If it wasn’t for these niggas paving
the way, you would have no fucking career right now..."
You’ve also re-released some of your old 12”s as well - “You
Know What I’m About”, “Hip 2 Da Game” and “Funky Technician”
Lord Finesse: They’re being re-release ‘cause everybody likes
instrumentals and acapellas, so, why not give the people what
they want. Especially up-coming DJ’s. I know when I was starting
to do beats, I liked to take peoples instrumentals and put ‘em
to a beat and see how shit sounds, you know, before I sell a
beat to somebody else.
Your records all tend to be collectors items, and go for some
serious money. How do you feel about that?
 Lord Finesse: That’s a fucking blessing, you know. I mean, they
don’t go gold or platinum but they become so scarce and rare
that people got to pay top dollar for ‘em, so that’s a real
blessing in disguise, you know.
Do you have copies of all your old records?
Lord Finesse: Oh yeah, I got test pressings of all my old shit.
You know, so I definitely got that.
You discovered Big L…
Lord Finesse: I discovered Big L when he had to have been about
15, 16 years old during an autograph signing. Him and his boy
came in the store, and his boy was like, you know, ‘Big L, this
dude, he wanna rhyme for you’ and you know, first notion, it’s
like ‘Go rhyme for my manager’, you know? And his man was like,
‘Nah he wanna rhyme for you and if you don’t like him, shit, we
won’t even bother you no more and shit, we’ll get the fuck out
the store’, so I couldn’t turn that up. So I listened to the
dude rhyme, and when he rhymed I was so impressed I was asking
for his number, like ‘What’s your number?’, you know, and I just
thought L reminds me of a LeBron James, how you could jump from
high school to the NBA. And that’s always been me and L, it’s
like when I looked at him, a lot of people looked at him like
‘Yo, he sounds just like you’ and yadda yadda, but I looked at
him as raw, uncut product and he proved me right, you know.
Throughout his whole career he definitely proved me right.
Do you think he could have blow up to be as big as, say, Jay-Z?
Lord Finesse: He would have been whatever or whoever the top
emcee was. That’s what he was gonna be, that’s why it wasn’t
hard for me to fall back, ‘cause I really wanted him to shine.
It wasn’t really about me during my whole career, anything I
could do for him, wherever I went, he went. If I had an
interview, he had an interview. If I had a show, he had a show.
To this day, if I was performing here, he’d probably been on
this stage with me to this day. When he started taking off and
shining, I felt like, ‘Look man, I passed the baton. It’s your
world, you know. You do you, you know. Me, I been doing this
shit since 89, it don’t really appeal to me no more, but, you
everything that I wanted to be’ and that’s the kinda respect we
had for each other. ‘Cause, I’m telling him, he’s everything I
wanted to be, meaning you’ve got so much more to go, so many
other places to go. Me, I’m bored with the game, but you take it
and you shine with it. And at the same time, he would tell me,
‘Man, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be in this rap
game’. So the mutual love that we had for each other was real
deep, you know?
"...All
them country niggas is not dope. Some of ‘em are lyrically
talented, some of them niggas is just straight bullshit..."
You worked with Percee P, back in the day.
Lord Finesse: Yeah.
Are you still cool with him?
 Lord Finesse: Yeah, I’m cool with Percee P. The only thing I
thought about Percee P was so deep and intellectual and lyrical
that his lyrics just really went over peoples heads and I always
told him he should slow his style down, where people can
honestly listen and appreciate his style, you know. Even
nowadays this nigga’s dope. He said ’I’m something something,
twice as nice, worth the price, the nigga that surfaced the
earth twice since Christ’. Some crazy shit. That dude is crazy,
man.
Do you plan on working with him again in the near future?
Lord Finesse: Hopefully, hopefully, you know. He’s running
around doing his thing, you know. What I try to do is let people
do them. I’m doing me, you do you and hopefully we’ll cross
paths some day and I’ll work. I don’t want people sitting there
waiting for me, ’When we gonna work, when we gonna work’. I
mean, when the time is right it’s gonna happen.
Your last proper album was “The Awakening” in 1996. How come
it’s taken so long for another Finesse album?
Lord Finesse: ‘Cause I really don’t appreciate rap right now,
and I can’t do something that I don’t appreciate, you know. I
don’t wanna put in all this work and ethics, if I don’t really
feel people gonna appreciate what I’m gonna do, you know. I
mean, I’ve been here for years and, you know, if it wasn’t for
me and Big L, a lot of rappers, the way they rhyming right now,
they wouldn’t even be rhyming that way. Nobody was kicking no
punch line or metaphors like me and Big L was. Now the whole
game’s punch line and metaphors. The whole game. The whole game.
You gotta really apply your self. This is not gonna come to you
and you got get into the rap game for all the right reasons.
Don’t get into it ’cause I sound better than this dude, or I
think I’m better than this dude. It’s so much more deeper than
that, and in order to get into this game and become a part of
this game you gotta know the roots of Hip Hop. Not just get into
the game ’cause I wanna make a record and I wanna make some
money. That’s what’s wrong with Hip hop right now, because I got
into it for the love of the music, and of course everybody wanna
make some money, but now people just care about the money, and
fuck the music. You know, they don’t get into it for the love of
the music. They get into it for what they can get out of the
music, you know. And they ain’t putting nothing into the music,
you know. And that’s why the state of Hip Hop is fucked up. It’s
also fucked up because a lot of major labels got rid of the
subsidiaries. The subsidiaries is the labels that’s under the
major labels that find all the incredible talent. When I say
subsidiaries, I’m talking about labels like Sleeping Bag and
Next Plateaux and Profile and Wild Pitch and Loud records and
Penalty. They the ones that go to the hood and find the dopest
and the rawest talent and they shape and mould the talent and
then a major label comes across and says ‘Yo, I like that
artist. Let us put the financial backing behind this artist and
take the artist to the next level’. Cool. Now when a major
labels get rid of the subsidiary labels, who are gonna go in the
hood and find the dope talent? These high class bougie people in
record labels ain’t going to no fucking hood.
"...That’s what’s wrong with the game. They want microwave
niggas, man. They wanna just put shit in the microwave and a
hit, a hit, a hit, a hit..."
The most they gonna see of the hood is if they on the train passing the hood,
going ‘Okay, that’s what the hood looks like’, but they ain’t
gonna go to the hood and find raw talent. They want everything
ready made. That’s what’s wrong with the game. They want
microwave niggas, man. They wanna just put shit in the microwave
and a hit, a hit, a hit, a hit. Good music don’t always come
like this. A good hit is like soul food. Sometime a hit might
not go gold or platinum, but a hit is timeless, you know. KRS
One is a classic example of a prophet. He’s timeless, you know.
If he ain’t go gold or platinum, so what? I guarantee you. I
will bet any amount of money you wanna bet that ain’t no Hip Hop
artist… Repeat this, No Hip Hop artist’s show is fucking with
KRS One show! He don’t got no backgrounds, no films, no
explosions. You go for hit for hit with that dude and niggas got
problems. Niggas got problems. All these niggas depend on all
these big props and backgrounds and explosions and films. Hip
Hop is what I did tonight. Me, the DJ, microphone and we going
all out. Whether it’s acapella or whether it’s with music,
whatever it is. Don’t get me wrong, Hip Hop is a multi-billion
dollar business and there’s room for everybody in the game,
whether it’s county, whether it’s pop, whether it’s whatever,
you know. But I just hate when they try to overlook what real
Hip Hop is, because this pop shit is selling. So fucking what,
you gotta give respect to people that made it possible for all
these new niggas. People like Rakim, KRS One, Kool G Rap, Big
Daddy Kane, the Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC. If it wasn’t for these
niggas paving the way, you would have no fucking career right
now. And that’s what all these artists don’t understand. ‘Yeah,
yeah I’m selling the records. So and so never sold his records’.
Look, if so and so never decided to rap, you wouldn’t have no
fucking career, you wouldn’t be selling shit.
So, you don’t seem impressed with the current state of Hip Hop.
Is there anyone you are feeling at the moment?
 Lord Finesse: I feel a lot of people, don’t get it twisted. I
like Ludacriss, I like Outkast, I like Cassidy, I like Nas, I
like Jadakiss, I love Jay-Z. I like 50 Cent, I like the G-Unit.
I like Eminem. I do feel all of them artists, I just think that
rap is not evolving like it used be. It used to be so many
different aspects of Hip Hop, whether it was the Marley Marl
movement, whether it was the Native Tongues movement, whether it
was Hurby Luv Bug, whether it was Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh,
whether it was Ice T, whether it was Dr Dre or NWA or King Tee
or Too $hort or DJ Quik. You had so many different aspects.
Right now, the shit is either underground or commercial,
underground or commercial. It’s really no balance.
Earlier, during your show you called out the ’Country Cats’. Who
were you referring to?
Lord Finesse: When I talk about country cats, I like Luda and
Outkast, but all them country niggas is not dope. Some of ‘em
are lyrically talented, some of them niggas is just straight
bullshit. You know, that’s what I mean. I don’t just point any
country nigga out. I like Ludacriss, I like Outkast, I like what
Lil Jon do up to a certain point. I like some of them country
dudes, but you can’t front, some of that shit is some bullshit.
The problem is, you get a trend, don’t you, when someone blows
up?
Lord Finesse: For instance okay, you got that country shit, you
know, dirty South and you got Trick Daddy. I like Trick Daddy .
A lot of ‘em I do like. I like T.I, but all the shit ain’t hot!
And that shit is hot for Atlanta. That shit is hot for North
Carolina, South Carolina, Miami, but the shit ain’t hot for New
York. New York ain’t country. New York is a fucking city. New
York is a urban community, you know I’m saying, so that country
shit really has no place in New York.
At this point the interview was abruptly terminated by the staff
of Dingwalls, who were all keen to close up and get home,
understandably, as it was now nearly 3.30am. So, unfortunately
we were unable to get any closing words from the Funky Man, Lord
Finesse. Many thanks to Finesse and his management for allowing
us the time to speak.
-
563
- Photo credit: Slacker
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