One For The Money
Even though they were stars they could only perform, they couldn't hang out in the hotels. Its a lot of places that are in Las Vegas that you would drive by and not know the complete history behind the place. The Moulin Rouge is in Las Vegas and a lot of people don't know that the original Moulin Rouge is still in Las Vegas today
Mr. Finley is coming from Las Vegas and has some serious things to say. He sat down and said a few to us recently.illRoots.com: Thanks for sitting down with us today and giving us some time out of your day.
Mr. Finley: No problem man, thank you. I have plenty of talent and time on my hands.
iR: Define yourself as an artist.
Finley: I'm well rounded and I don't stick to one plateau and I'm not afraid to be myself or be different. What I do is not what's going on, but it will because I'm a perfectionist and I strive for perfection.
iR: So you're from Vegas. What is the other side of Vegas that we don't see, considering what most see is the "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." What do you see?
Finley: Its a lot of hoods out here and Vegas is real small and its not as big as say Miami. We are basically stuck in the middle of the mountains. You can get anywhere in Las Vegas in 20 minutes between the regular streets and the freeways. Its like there are a lot of hoods, bloods and crips, then you have your mexican gangs all within a mile radius of each other so they all have to go to the same stores. Its not like you can avoid each other because they all have no choice but to use the same spots. Stores are like neutral ground so if you get into somebody you're guaranteed to see them before the week is up. In the summertime there is a lot of violence out here. The heat in Las Vegas does something to people out here. You just be like rolling down the street and its like "Man if anybody looks at me funny..."
iR: Thats everywhere though, as soon as a heatwave hits people simultaneously loose their minds for some reason. Explain to me what you bring that is not already being displayed in the marketplace?
Finley: I bring a lot of variety. I'm not judging no one but everybody has a style except for me because I can do it all. I'm going to do it all and on my album I will do it all.
iR: The title of the album is called "The Talented Mr. Finley"?
Finley: Yes sir album, coming this fall.
iR: Which is loosely based off or a spin off of "The Talented Mr. Ripley"?
Finley: Yes its like a spin off of that movie.
iR: Okay the joint where Don Knotts played a fish. I believe right now we are starting see more of a rounded sound. You have people who are using the internet to obviously express themselves and level the playing field. What sound can we expect from this debut?
Finley: My sound is a real big live sound. Almost all of my songs were done with live bass, live drums, live guitars and overall a complete live sound. We are bringing back the Rat Pack sound and amping it up by 500.
iR: The irony is that you're from Vegas. As far as production have you ever delved into it at all?
Finley: No I don't really get around that. I can but I don't really like my beats, other people like my beats but I'm not to where I want to be in production. Maybe as I progress my beat confidence will arise and I'll start putting stuff out there. Yet as of right now I'm sticking to what I know best.
iR: So you represent Las Vegas and you're the first one stepping onto the major scene from your area?
Finley: Yeah. I didn't care if I was the first or the last one, I was just hoping that whoever was the breakthrough for our city did it right. I thank God that I am the first person to get this chance and I'm going to do this for my city so that we have a chance to get on.
iR: Being first can be a good and bad thing at times.
Finley: Yes it is definitely a gift and a curse but I'll take one for the team. I know that I have the music so I'm going to deliver regardless. I've been on research since 1997 and I want to know what the whole town feels like so that I can come out and represent the city with the utmost certainty that I will do it right.
iR: A lot of people are wiser than before because without money to cover things up we have to become creative in ways that we go about normal business.
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Finley: Pretty much, there are errors in regards to everything and if you're not able to adapt then people are going to grow tired of you and I won't let that happen to myself. I want everybody that comes from out of my city to take the good and bad things that I do and learn from them in order to push them to the next level.
iR: As comes the territory with introducing us to a city, what are some people, places, or things that we should know about, proverbial landmarks of the Las Vegas Hip-Hop scene.
Finley: Vegas, you have the Westside and the Westside was basically the only part of town where black people could live in Vegas until maybe like the 70s. My parents grew up in those times. A lot of those places that I walked past as a kid, I never knew were hangouts for Sammy Davis, Jr. and Red Foxx. Even though they were stars they could only perform, they couldn't hang out in the hotels. Its a lot of places that are in Las Vegas that you would drive by and not know the complete history behind the place. The Moulin Rouge is in Las Vegas and a lot of people don't know that the original Moulin Rouge is still in Las Vegas today. It got burned down a couple years back but they are rebuilding it and reopening it and all that shit. Then you got your Northtown and that is like the other black part of town. Separating Northtown and Westside is probably a 1/2 mile, then separating Northtown from another part of town is less than that and they call that the Eastside. Its not even geographically correct.
iR: Whoa whoa whoa so you're telling me the Eastside isn't on the actual eastside?
Finley: Yes the eastside isn't in the actual East.
iR: Shut the fuck up, the world is coming to an end.
Finley: The Eastside is where all the mexican gangs are at and there are millions of them over there. You don't go over there if you don't have no business. Then if you go back up to the real Westside end of the town, they call that Summerland and its more upper class than the other two areas. Further out closer to the mountains parallels the more money you have. Even from the furthest point into the mountains is only a 20 minute car ride on the freeway from any part of the city.
iR: So your project has Toomp and Don Cannon on it and I'm assuming that affiliation would go back to KP?
Finley: KP and Malay did the rest of the production on the album and I have 4 Toomp joints and one from Cannon. KP and Malay did "Green Light" for John Legend so you can see from that production that they are real live instrumentalists. When you hear their sound you know that those are live drums and live sounds and horns because they don't sound digital. Overall this live sound really gives you that authenticity. When you add that new age kick drum on it the sound becomes so much more layered and I think its a perfect mesh for my sound.
iR: When are we going to see this project?
Finley: We don't have an official release date yet, we just know its going to be late fall. We are just taking our time to make it as big as it should be. We are going to set up and take the right set so that when we drop that undeniable single then its going to be like "I need that album." Nowadays the way money is scarce, if people are going to spend money with you they expect more out of you.
iR: Well thanks again for sitting down with us and I look forward to see what comes out of your project.
Finley: Anytime.
