Features

ThaFormula.Com - So how was your Birthday Show Finesse?

Lord Finesse - Off the hinges! That was on of my best birthdays ever. A lot of people turned out. SOB's was jam packed. What more can you ask for? It was a real Hip-Hop event and that's what I wanted. I didn't want no commercial watered down you know top ten artist of the year…nah just some real cool out, down to earth be yourself event. Brand Nubian came out. The whole Diggin' crew was there. You know me, AG, OC, Fat Joe, Diamond, Show, Buckwild, Roc Raida of The Executioners with Total Eclipse was there. Jazzy Jeff came out, Red Alert came out and Black Sheep was there. I seen Cormega, Pharoah Monch, M.O.P., Ultramagnetic was there. Couldn't have asked for nothing bigger than what it was you now?

ThaFormula.Com - That shit sounded incredible…when you bringing something like that to L.A.?

Lord Finesse - I know man. When these promoters understand real Hip-Hop is and what the fuck is going on. They don't understand that. Not to take nothing away from people out there that's really doing it commercially but a lot of them cats that do it commercially can't put on a good show. Everybody that I explained to you that was at the party will turn a party upside down. They will tear shit down! The commercial artists will no doubt draw the people but when it comes to doing that show man, a lot of ticket holders walk away real angry.

ThaFormula.Com - Well it's nice to see you back since you been gone for a minute you know?

Lord Finesse - Nah, a lot of soul searchin', that's what I can say you know. A lot of me sitting down and me looking at just my life on a whole you know. As far as when I first came to the game 'till now different things that I've been through, I really had to just sit there for a while and analyze stuff and now I'm ready to make the move how I need to make this move.

ThaFormula.Com - What made you choose now to make your return?

Lord Finesse - The state of Hip-Hop. It's corny. I looked at it and it was also an opportunity to show the game what Hip-Hop is about. I mean Hip-Hop is about just that resurgence, reinventing yourself and coming back twice as ill as when you left because now you have a extreme understanding of what you wanna do and what music means to you and what music is about on a whole. It's like when I was younger in the game I understood some aspects of music but I didn't really realize what music meant as a whole as far as a lot of different things. As far as being an artist, as far as being a rapper, and I see things extremely clear now.

ThaFormula.Com - What made you put out "From the Crate to the Files: The Lost Sessions" on Fat Beats earlier this year?

Lord Finesse - What that project was supposed to do is to hip all the people that wasn't up on Lord Finesse and you know people say I was looking for this song, or I was looking for this remix, or I was looking for this cut and it was to really to bring all that stuff back out where people can have access to go purchase it that couldn't find it before. You might have people that heard of Lord finesse but never bought any of his stuff and checked it out, and that's all that project is supposed to do. It's no way in the world gonna explain to you what I'm about to do. It's just like starting part 4 to a movie but you got people that just got up on what the movie is about so you let them go back and read chapters 1 to 3 and then you drop part 4.

ThaFormula.Com - The track on that album with Fat Joe and Armageddon, what was that from?

Lord Finesse - That was done during the Penalty era. That was done as I was growing as an artist but that was supposed to be on the Penalty project. When the label got dropped that song still remained and it was just a track that I had.

ThaFormula.Com - Did "From the Crates" do what you expected though?

Lord Finesse - Yeah I couldn't ask for much more. Well I could have expected it to do a little bit more but its a timeless piece so even when I drop more stuff and people get hip on Lord Finesse I have somewhere to send them to go get that old stuff. It's like a dictionary that will be sitting there for a minute.

ThaFormula.Com - So what exactly happened to "The Underworld" album you were supposed to drop on penalty?

Lord Finesse - What happened is me and Neil Levine from Penalty had just come to terms on my new contract situation. Everything was edged out and right, all the "T"'s was crossed , the "I"'s was dotted…we was getting ready to move on with it you know and that's when Tommy Boy had took over Penalty and got rid of Neil Levine and I just knew Tommy Boy wasn't the place for me. I ain't never in 3 million years think I was gonna drop on no Tommy Boy and I knew it couldn't happen so I just decided to part ways. They go their way, they give me my release, and I'm out you know? And that's what I did. I just went in the cut you know. I wasn't really and still am not really ready to run and jump on a label and say "yo I want a deal, I want a deal." It's not like that. I'm just gonna take my time and pick the right situation for me that can help lay the foundation on what I plan to be my future releases and my future artists that I'm dealing with to make sure they have a comfortable home.

ThaFormula.Com - Did you actually finish that album?

Lord Finesse - Nah, I wasn't even uh, I was like 2 cuts deep in that. One cut was the joint with Rell, "Ghetto" and the other joint was called uh, I didn't even have a title for it but that's the one that I wound up giving to Dre for his album. Those were the 2 cuts that I had and that's all I had and I was supposed to go out to Cali to work with Dre and it was a lot of big things getting ready to happen. It was supposed to have been Executive Produced by me and Fat Jo, so you know a lot of big things were gonna happen, but when Penalty got dropped by Tommy Boy I just knew…fuck Tommy Boy they don't know what the hell is going on you know?

ThaFormula.Com - And that's why I got to say no matter what went down throughout the years, D.I.T.C. always kept it real…

Lord Finesse - And that's what I think is missing from Hip-Hop today, because its really keepin' it real as being yourself and doing what you feel is hot, not doing what everybody else feels is hot and throwing it out there 'cause you got a lot of you know…stunt doubles out there. You might have an artist like Jay (Z) for instance and then you got artists that wanna sound like Jay, or you got a G-Unit and then you got a hundred people that wanna sound like G-Unit. I mean what happened to the days of people just saying "okay, that's they hustle they eating off, we got to find our own hustle and until Hip-Hop gets back to that state its gonna be ruff. The major's don't have a muthafuckin' clue. You got a lot of A&R's and people riding the gravy train 'cause they just wanna keep there jobs. They don't give a fuck about the state of music. They don't have the balls to say "yo this is what I'm gonna sign, I'm gonna push it. I don't care if you all don't like it but I feel it can be successful. Everybody is riding the gravy train. They wanna keep they job, corporate credit cards from the company and just chill and eat and there is nothing wrong with that, but you're there to do a job and none of these niggaz is doing no job you know? People feel you got to do this type of record to sell, you gotta do dirty South records to sell? Dirty South has found they hustle and they're eating off of their hustle. That's good for Atlanta and a lot of Southern states but that might not be it for New York so I don't know why you out there for all these Southern acts you know? We in an urban community, we in the city life. Ain't nothing country about what we doing up here. So I don't take nothing from the South.

I love that the South made their move…that's great. Okay that's what they are doing, but what the fuck are we gonna do? That's they hustle and that's why I think New York gotta find they hustle. 50 Cent is doing him, Jay is doing him, other people in New York gotta find what are they gonna do? When I come back out I don't plan to sound like any of the cats that I mentioned. Not that they're not successful, but people are gonna love 'Nesse for 'Nesse being 'Nesse. They don't want Finesse to do anything out of 'Nesses' range you know?

ThaFormula.Com - Do you ever see real Hip-Hop being back on a major label in a major way like say DITC being back on a major label once again?

Lord Finesse - Well what you got to understand, and to answer your question is you got major labels…now back in the days you had major labels, but you had a lot of subsidiary labels under the majors. The subsidiary labels were the ones that went in the hood that went to the grimiest clubs that hung out wherever they had to hang out to find the next cat. They in the dirtiest hood, in spots where people might get robbed, shot and killed to find this next dude, and what happens is that this subsidiary will sign this act or artist and build and develop the artist. Then the major label will swoop down and put more money into the artist to build the artist into the superstar. Now when you got these major labels and they get rid of all the subsidiary labels, who's that cat that's gonna go in the hood or the grimiest club to go find the next dude? Nobody! Half these cats are from the muthafuckin' suburbs man! They come in the city on the fuckin' Metro North. What they know about going in the hood and finding the next cat? What do they know about what's it gonna take from this artist to go to the next level? And they want everything done, they don't want the cake with just the ingredients, they want you to bring the cake in fully baked, frosting on it, candles…all they wanna do is blow out all the candles. They don't wanna do shit and because of that Hip-Hop is really suffering. I mean you got some successful acts but not as much as we used to do or use to have. I mean at one point in rap, every week you had 6 or 7 albums coming out. Now you will be happy every month to have a good 4 hot albums come out. It's a big difference..

ThaFormula.Com - I thought last year was the worst year I've ever seen for Hip-Hop. Never had I seen the level of wackness that 2003 brought…

Lord Finesse - Yeah well until you get these dumb cats out of office you know. I wish we could have a muthafuckin' election like how we vote for President. I wish you could vote for a muthafuckin' record label exec 'cause we need a lot of new execs that know what's going on. Now I don't knock on music and I'm not knocking what people are doing, I just feel that the state of Hip-Hop is fucked up and the numbers of what Hip-Hop used to do compared to know show's that Hip-Hop is fucked up. You know Hip-Hop is still big, don't get it twisted it's one of the biggest things in music if not the biggest but we're not doing the units that we used to do. We're not coming out with the creative stuff that we used to come out with. Everything is in black & white. It's either commercial or its underground. They don't take music for what music is no more, which is good music you know?

ThaFormula.Com - Now a lot of people are hyped up about the remix album, how long ago did you think about doing this project?

Lord Finesse - Well I been sitting on this idea for a couple of years now and I figured I had some free time on my hands and I just wanted to kick off the project and it started off where I was just gonna do and instrumental album of the first album and I was sitting there talking to Buckwild one day and he was like "why don't you go back and remix some of those songs?" and I was like "yeah you might have something there," and it started out with me just remixing maybe 4 to 5 cuts then it just got bigger, and bigger and then more people got involved and up to this point you still got other producers getting involved. It's gonna be a big thing to go back you know to that first album and redo them cuts. That's big itself you know, besides that you got maybe a Preem, Pete, Buckwild, Madlib, Spinna and Kenny Dope and you know I was just talkin' to The Beatnuts you know? Then you got a track by Large Professor you know so hopefully it's an album that cats will pick up and really enjoy. I don't expect it to do Gold or Double Platinum, I just wanna give people a breath of fresh air to listen to. It can be done you know. You just got to look at what's going on around you and be able to come with something that's gonna help the situation and I think in my heart I got a lot of projects and a lot of things that's about to come about that can change it. No way in the world I can change Hip-Hop by myself and I really don't plan to, I just plan to give people good music, what I've been giving people and that's all I can ask from the game. I'm not askin' people to feel sorry and buy my shit on the strength of that, I'm just telling people "look, I wanna do good music," and you know…what artists have got to understand is you've got to follow technology and you've got to follow what's out there. It don't mean you got to emulate or copy it, but you've got to understand what's out there in order to go to the next level. It's a lot of new technology when it comes to music that you can use to elevate Hip-Hop. I think 2004 should be a big year for Hip-Hop in a lot of different ways. I know us (Diggin in the Crates) is doing a new album. That is official. At my birthday party everybody performed together. It wasn't like "I'm gonna perform here, well I'll perform at 10:00, you perform at 12:00, I'll perform at 1:00," we was all on the same stage. We're grown ass men now. It's either get it now or just fuck it, that's my attitude. We can't get in now fuck it, why the fuck are we together for? I don't even wanna hear that name (DITC) if we can't turn around and get this money now.

ThaFormula.Com - Is the respect always mutual on every level between every member of the crew?

Lord Finesse - I think the respect is mutual for the most part. I don't look at it as somebody is bigger then this person or this person 'cause in the world we from, and where Diggin' is from, the fans look at us as equals. The fans don't look at it like the commercial world would look at The Lox like Jada is the best, Styles is next you know? To me I like Lox as a group. I love 'em all individually as well as being in a group. But I love 'em more as them puttin' that joint effort doing shit in a group 'cause they all compliment each other and I think that goes the same for Diggin' because I mean you got Diamond you got OC, you got AG you got Fat Joe. Producer wise you got show, Buck, Me, Diamond, and I think we all compliment each other. I don't think nobody is bigger than the group. Nobody carries the group. I think we all compliment each other and god bless the dead, Big L used to compliment the hell out the group 'cause everybody gots they own style and they got they own definition of what they bringing to the game. You've got to understand in Hip-Hop most groups start off as groups and they break up and do their solo shit. We went from solo shit to coming in as a group. I just think we're used to doing our own shit. So you're gonna clash on ideas 'cause it's what you think is dope or this person thinks is dope. We just sometimes clashed on a lot of ideas and concepts. 'Cause like I said Diamond's used to doing his own album, OC used to doing his, Fat Joe used to do his, I'm used to doing mine, Show & AG is used to doing theirs, so to get all them creative minds in the studio is a lot of talent there, but you're gonna clash, but no one is bigger then the group.

ThaFormula.Com - Now your connection to Dre came through you being real cool with Mel Man right?

Lord Finesse - Correct.

ThaFormula.Com - Did he want to be a member of DITC at one point?

Lord Finesse - Oh hell yeah. I mean I consider him a member. I consider a lot of people members you now. As far as like DJ Premier…I just think they members but they just was never official members, but if you look at they track record, they do everything we do. They dig for records, they like to use samples, they chop and whatever you think we do, they do the same thing. If you look at Large Professor and Pete I think they all members. Diggin' in the Crates speaks for itself.

ThaFormula.Com - How did you and Mel Man connect to begin with?

Lord Finesse - Well we happened to meet in a record store down in lower Manhattan you know, and he was diggin' and I was diggin'. I walked in the store hit one section, he was in the store already and he was in another section. He looked over and said "oh shit that's 'Nesse over there." He introduced himself and we kicked it on some real shit. I think our love for music is what made us really click you know? 'Cause there was certain shit he was lookin' for and certain shit I was lookin' for and we just kicked about music the whole time we was in the store and I actually came out to his hotel and picked him up and just was showing him around the city on some real shit. It wasn't like "yo he's Mel Man or he's this," nah I looked at him as a regular dude with the love of music that I had and we clicked like that and the situation with Dre was a whole 'nother situation. He had Dre fly me out there, we all kicked it and that's how that happened you know but the love of music is how I click with a lot of people. Whether rappers or whether producers.

ThaFormula.Com - Did you and Dre ever get in the studio together and produce a track?

Lord Finesse - Yes and no. It was started but it was just never finished. It wasn't nothing bad that broke up the vibe, it's just that I got caught up in a few things and I think he got caught up in a few things business wise that deterred us from making that happen. That's why I think its not far fetched that it could still happen. It's just that it just never happened. The only way it happened was when we did "The Message" on 2001, but "The Message" was really done already. But I think Dre is an incredible producer. I don't care what people say, he's the master chef.

ThaFormula.Com - Okay, so then you actually got to see Dr. Dre work then? 'Cause most people nowadays be sayin' Dre don't produce nothin' anymore or that he's just fakin' it in the studio while others do the work?

Lord Finesse - Nah I wouldn't think that at all. That's they opinion and whatever they feel but I seen Dre work. They buggin'. All these hits ain't come about without Dre's touch on it.

ThaFormula.Com - How did you end up getting that track on 2001? That caught me off guard when I saw your name on that album…

Lord Finesse - Well I got on it through Mel Man. I went and played tracks for Dre. That song was a song that was on my album you know. I think Dre had walked out the room and Mel Man was like "yo you got that track?" 'Cause Mel Man loved that track. He used to call it the Chinese joint. I think Dre was out the room but I think the door opened and he must of heard it. He was telling him how crazy that track was and he asked me later on down the line, "can I get that?" I mean how you gonna tell Dre no? I said, "hell yeah you can get that, you know that's no problem." It's still an outlet, I always looked at it as an outlet of my music still getting out there even if it was on his album. So I didn't really look at it like, "nah this is my joint and you cant have it." I looked at it like "damn." I looked to do numbers with it 'cause it was an incredible track but I wasn't gonna do the numbers he was gonna do so hey you can get that. But that's how that came about.

ThaFormula.Com - And you got the production credit for that. It's on the album Produced by Lord Finesse…

Lord Finesse - That's why I don't understand how people say he don't do his own music? I mean if that was the case, why he didn't put his name on my project on my stuff? But I know for a fact that I did that track from scratch from beginning to end and people gotta understand, when you're supposed to be a Producer, your goal is to do a track from beginning to end, not come in there with a loop and some drums and say "okay you add the rest." I mean you got beat makers and you got producers. A Producer is the one that produces a song, arranges the song. Not a person that just hands you a beat and tells you "here rock over it," but more helps you develop that song and that's what Dre does as a Producer. When people say he don't produce his own shit, you know I look at them niggaz crazy. You might come in with an idea but that don't mean you're a Producer. Then again I don't know all them cats situation so I can't speak on their situation. I know when 'Nesse went in there, 'Nesse did his own shit. I have nothing bad to say about Dre at all. I was just happy to be a part of that situation and still would love to be a part of any further situation with his "Detox" album. I don't got nothing but good things to say about Dre, period!

ThaFormula.Com - Did that track help you out a lot as far as getting more production calls from people?

Lord Finesse - People don't understand the process it takes to make an incredible track like that. People just want you to come in with a fuckin' beat CD full of shit like that and as a producer I have to really work with the artist and get a feel for the artist to come up with my best work. I can't just give you a beat. I need to really work with an artist. If I get a chance to work with an artist you will hear some shit like that, but these artists want this fast food microwave shit you know? They don't want you to sit there and cook a home cooked meal no more. Just pop the TV dinner in and that's the type of beats cats want. I don't do beats like that. I do beats where you're gonna go back to my shit years from now and go "damn that shit was crazy." Everybody got these fast food beats where they're good for a couple of months and that shit is over with. What's the last classic album you heard? What's the last classic record or 12" you heard and I mean classic! ?

ThaFormula.Com - It's been a while man.

Lord Finesse - You know, when I look at me or my crew, we did classic shit. I did Biggies "Suicidal Thoughts," that's classic. I did Dr. Dre's "The Message," that's classic. Show did KRS-One's "Sound of the Police," that's classic. Buckwild did "Got a Story to Tell," that's classic, he did Black Rob's "Whoa," that's classic. We into making some long lasting shit you can go back and listen to years from now. Diamond done worked with Busta. I mean he did The Fugees, the title track for The Fugees "The Score" and rhymed on it. That's classic. So when people don't look at my crew as one of the dopest crews in Hip-Hop, niggaz don't know what the fuck they talkin' about when you look at us from all levels from rappers and Producers.

ThaFormula.Com - How do you feel about that DITC album you guys dropped and...

Lord Finesse - You know, I wish we had more time to do that and I think Tommy Boy put that shit out and it wasn't done. It wasn't even no fuckin' good mixes on half those songs, so you made us really look shitty as far as Tommy Boy. I hated that you know. That's fucked up. That's like you painting a picture and a nigga take your picture without you fillin' in all the shits and then they say "yo that picture don't even look right," and it wasn't even a done picture. So yeah I was real hurt behind that because that wasn't our best effort and I didn't want the world to look at that as our best effort.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah I've got to be real, as much as I did like the album I was a little disappointed because we are talkin' about one of the most talented crews ever in Hip-Hop. I did feel that the album was incomplete…

Lord Finesse - Well it goes back to the situation. You got a lot of creative minds in the studio and we was trying to find our niche and you can't put a time on trying to find your niche. No matter how bad you want the album done and completed you can't put a fuckin' timetable on it and they put a time where "we need it out by here," and come on man…I was just hurt by it.

ThaFormula.Com - Now there was two versions released of that album? What was up with that?

Lord Finesse - Because the second one was a better effort, and it was more what we was almost finished doing. The beats were better, the concept was better and I wish we could have put out the second album version instead of the first. But honestly I'd just rather scrap both the albums and just do what we was planning to do. But I look at the situation like "if that wasn't our best effort so it shouldn't be hard to top those to then." That's how I look at it.

ThaFormula.Com - So you were really that hurt with that one?

Lord Finesse - Hell yeah because I know that ain't the dopest we can be and it doesn't represent…uh I think like I said, we was really finding our niche. We was coming about, it was coming together but these fucking dick heads up at Tommy Boy were the fuckin' worst man and you know, they put it out. I mean it's really no excuse. I'm not gonna ever make up no excuse but I felt that wasn't our best.

ThaFormula.Com - If it was up to you how many tracks off of the one released would have made it to the real album you would have dropped?

Lord Finesse - Maybe (track) 20 or 3, maybe.

ThaFormula.Com - Wow, I didn't think it was bad like that at all man..

Lord Finesse - I'm keepin' it real and I think that if you was to talk to every individual artist on Diggin', they feel the same way. I think our best, most incredible cut where we all came together the right way was "Day 1." That was just a fuckin' light at the end of the tunnel of what that album was supposed to sound like. That's how every cut was supposed to be…in key like that and I think that's our best cut and will always be our best cut until we do something more incredible. I mean I like "The Enemy," don't get it twisted I love "The Enemy," but like I said I just feel we were still growing. I think right now to the point where we at now, cats is more mature now. We know what's going on in the game. We know where we fit in and stand and we know what we got to do.

ThaFormula.Com - Now when you took DITC over to Rawkus, did you guys have big plans for that?

Lord Finesse - We had big plans but they got funny because that deal with Rawkus…we was supposed to own our masters and the rights to the music and our deal went down currently like that but when it was time to turn in our album they were supposed to have forked over the rest of the money but then said "we're not giving you the other check until you sign your rights over." We were like "that wasn't the deal!" and that's why Rawkus never got the album.

ThaFormula.Com - So how are you putting the remix album out and has it been completed?

Lord Finesse - Right now I'm trying to finish it up right now and I got a little ways to go, it will be done in a minute.

ThaFormula.Com - Are you putting it out through Fat Beats?

Lord Finesse - Nah. It's just they don't understand what Hip-Hop is no more. I really think they don't understand what Hip-Hop means. Diggin' in the Crates is Hip-Hop, and they are lost right now.

ThaFormula.Com - Well you know Finesse Hip-Hop just ain't the same no more…

Lord Finesse - That's what they trying to tell me that Hip-Hop is not the same, but what are you doing to help Hip-Hop? What are you doing to change the game? I mean when Diggin' first came out on Fat Beats, we were there prime clients and ever since then they've been over saturating the market with all these releases so you cant blame what's going on with Hip-Hop on just what's going on in the corporate world. You done oversaturated the market with a lot of bullshit releases. They trying to tell me what's going on with rap right now, and you really can't tell me that. DITC always sold massive amounts of records. I just think they oversaturated the market and in order to get it where it needs to be you got to consistently keep dropping incredible hot shit.

ThaFormula.Com - So what are you lookin' at putting out this year cause people really wanna know?

Lord Finesse - I'm looking at doing this DITC album and I'm lookin' forward to a Brand Nubian and Diggin' in the Crates tour. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting ready to finish this installment of "The Underboss" album and I'm looking to doing a Big L album called "Real Legends Don't Die." But we will see what 2004 holds for Lord Finesse and DITC and that's all I can say.

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