Finale

At a time when chasing money supercedes chasing dreams, Detroit's Finale has proudly done the opposite. A former automotive engineer for The Big Three, the Morehouse drop-out decided that he would give his passion of hip-hop five years before deciding what his life's calling would truly be.
 
"That was seven years ago," jokes Finale. With rich histories in both the auto industry and music, he opted for the latter, perhaps a bit more stable in these times. "I wanted things to happen naturally," says the emcee. In his community, open microphones, showcases and emcee battles prompted Finale to mingle with local talents like One.Be.Lo and Invincible, while winning the respect of producers including Black Milk, Nottz and the immortal J Dilla. The career and personal sacrifice of Finale is captured on A Pipedream And A Promise, featuring the producers mentioned. Rather than simply approach his respected peers with budget in hand, the relative newcomer in the scene waited until he was an equal, letting the coveted collaborations occur organically.
 
The album, to be released on Interdependent Media, pulls from the artist's conviction amidst unstable times. "They'll criticize what I do, but when I'm in the papers or on radio, they'll support me," admits Finale of friends and family witnessing his "Pipe Dream" of making it within hip-hop. "The Promise," is something more personal that has driven this talented voice to fulfill the destiny he wanted to tackle upon leaving his traditional career and financial stability. "Rapping is now my full-time job," he says. Sure enough, with a handful of Fat Beats released singles, an album released with European producer Spier 1200 as a part of The Rawkus 50, and numerous appearances on independent releases from Invincible, Elzhi and others, this artist has stayed working.
 
The conviction in Finale's lyrical delivery is as abrasive as any Detroit gangster rapper's bars. Whether "Jumper Cables" or "Motor Music," the local flavor comes alive, with the inside looks that only Finale's life experience could possibly provide. "Heat," one of the Dilla-produced songs, uses a crisp vocal presentation of the bragging, battle-tested emcee with the electronic music that's made Motown famous in the last decade. Finale bridges the gap between the street rappers of his region and the abstract luminaries of the underground with a universal tour guide of Michigan, its betters and blemishes.
 
Vowing this work as his debut, "My other material was more or less promotion," modestly says the creator of the Develop album, available on iTunes and select retail outlets. With a full mixtape of original material releasing to promote A Pipedream And A Promise, quantity is something Finale is capable of delivering, but his seven years in-the-making quality pulls him from the pack. Although society tells us that pipedreams aren't likely to happen, you can hear it in the music and in talking to him, that Finale refuses to break this promise to himself – a voice to be heard and a force to be reckoned with.