Love of music is always of paramount importance to Robert “Lord Finesse” Hall. It’s this love that has guided his career for more than 30 years and continues to drive him today. And if there’s one thing that goes hand-in-hand with loving music, it’s loving the music of Motown. Which is part of the reason why Lord Finesse’s Motown State of Mind—a remix project that reimagines some of the iconic label’s most amazing anthems—is pretty much a perfect combination.
Finesse is a renowned triple threat. He’s best known as a masterful emcee, with a three-decades-strong career that includes genre-expanding albums like Funky Technician (1990), Return of the Funky Man (1992) and The Awakening (1996). He’s also nice behind the two turntables as a DJ, spinning at gigs across the globe. And, of course, he’s a highly skilled producer. He’s a founding member of the Diggin’ In the Crates crew (D.I.T.C.), along with Diamond D and Showbiz & A.G. The collective of artists and producers grew to include Fat Joe, Buckwild, Milano, and Big L (R.I.P.) to name a few.
As a producer, Finesse has an overlooked body of work. Besides producing for himself and his D.I.T.C. cohorts, he was involved with Bad Boy Records during its earliest days, working extensively with The Notorious B.I.G. as he established himself. He also put together tracks for artists like Dr. Dre, Capone-N-Noreaga, and Akinyele.
Motown State of Mind places the spotlight firmly on his aptitude behind the boards. He demonstrates his ability to put together a dope track and his capability to create a mood and vibe. He takes songs that, in some cases, are more than a half-century old and tackles them in a way that not only honors their soulfulness, but also updates them to reflect modern sensibilities in a manner that won’t be instantly dated.
In order to put these remixes together, Motown gave Finesse access to the vocal stems (essentially the acapella ) from the original recordings that he requested, allowing him to build the musical backdrop from the ground up. “There’s only so much you could do with a two-track,” he explains. “You need acapellas, you need stems.”
The project runs seven tracks deep, as Finesse remixes and reinterprets tracks from the label’s ’60s and ’70s heyday, such as Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You,” Michael Jackson’s “I Want To Be Where You Are,” and a medley of songs by the Jackson 5 (“ABC,” “I Want You Back,” and “The Love You Save”). He tackles some late ’70s/early ’80s material by the DeBarge family, including Switch’s “There’ll Never Be” and DeBarge’s “I Like It.” He brings in fellow producers like Tall Black Guy and Dinky Bingham for the occasional assist, both accomplished in their own right. The summer release for this project is ideal, as it’s tailor made to chill out to.
And like the true crate-digger that he is, Finesse recreates one of the label’s deepest cuts, Sister Love’s “Now Is the Time.” The track appeared in the 1973 film The Mack, but was not present on the Willie Hutch-helmed soundtrack. The song features a great appearance by producer J-Zone, who has now become a funk, soul, and hip-hop staple as one of the funkiest drummers around.
Finesse remains extremely passionate about Motown State of Mind, which should remind his audience just how talented he is as a producer. He recently spoke with me at length about how the project came about, songs he wanted to remix but couldn’t, what drives him as an artist, and his enduring legacy.
How did this project come about?
I think it starts with the love of the music. I was playing a club in Chinatown LA called the Boom Box. Andre Torres, an executive from Universal, happened to be at the party that night to catch me spin. He was tripping out at all the alternative versions …. You know when I play a party, I can do different mixes, I can play different samples. I will mix it all up, but it’ll all fit so perfectly. It’ll become like the journey. … An hour for me in the club is not enough time, so if they give me an hour, I feel like I’m cramming a three-hour adventure in an hour.
After the set, Andre was talking to me and he was like, “Man, that stuff you were doing was incredible. You ever thought about doing a project with the mixtures and the ideas that you come up with? So, yo, let’s sit and come up with an idea.”
And it took months, but I told him I wanted to do Motown State of Mind. I wanted to do a project around Motown, because at the time I was doing a lot of Motown events. They’ve got Motown Monday events all over the United States. I did these special mixes, it’s an easy sell. It’s an easy play that’ll live on, because you got the DJs, if they love the mixes, they going to play it in all the Motown Mondays. The people that come to the Motown Mondays are like, “I got to get that version.”
How long have you been making these special mixes of songs?
Probably since 2010 or 2011.
What made you want to go in that direction of making these mixes?
Because as a DJ you got Serato, you got YouTube, you got all these different platforms where people dig for music and find music. But nothing really tops the art of digging or being creative, which are gifts. So, me being able to get my hands on stems and me being a producer, I can remix and re-produce a song. So I can re-produce a song at my leisure and I play all these events, and I’m playing you my mixes how they had with Larry Levan and all them in the early years, that’s what they were doing.
So, I was thinking if it’s me playing music, I wanted it to be different. If I’m coming into a party and I’m playing what everybody else is playing, that don’t make you special. To come in to a party with your own vibe, with your own style where you could take the crowd to different places that you know ain’t nobody going to be able to take them, because this is your creativity.
What drew you to these seven songs?
They were definitely actual favorites of mine. Especially Switch. I used to hear Switch on the late-night channel, 1am on the radio station. … That’s always been a favorite and to be able to speed it up and turn it into a reunion song or something you have playing at a barbecue or even a wedding reception. Giving it that type of a feel. And then (El DeBarge’s) “I Like It,” just giving out a whole different modernized soul approach. If you didn’t hear the earlier version of that, you could have sworn that that record was just done now.
One of the songs you remixed is “Now Is the Time” by Sisters Love, from the movie The Mack. It’s a pretty obscure one. You also have J-Zone doing the drumming on that one. What made you want to tackle that song?
That comes from me watching The Mack back in the days over and over and over again. And when they’re at the Player’s Ball and the music come on, you’re like, “Oh, shit, this is funky. What’s this?” So, as I grew up, I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to get that Mack soundtrack and hear that song.” And then that song ain’t on there. So, one of the greatest blessings is to be able to go and get that song, something that I heard that was never released.
And you know what I’m going to do with that. I’m going to restructure that. And you keep certain elements and you lock everything up and you speed it up. And then knowing J-Zone being the beast he is. He’s really taking a scientific approach to drums and the sound. He knows to muffle the cymbal, and he’s like, “See you put a cloth under here and then you …” I always told him, “Yeah, man. I’m going to work with you when time allows.” And we’ve been working since then. He just did some work for me not too long ago and I got a couple of projects that I want to work with him on.
To take it back a little, do you remember when you were first introduced to the music of Motown?
One of my favorite Motown records growing up was “Keep on Truckin’” by Eddie Kendricks. That was a deep record and “Girl You Need to Change Your Mind.” Eddie’s music was so atmospheric in those times and what was going on, and his voice would just cut through so beautifully; light and easy. You hear the drama in that record, and his voice is just cutting through light and easy.
Was that the first Motown Record that you bought? Or was it something else?
It probably was Stevie Wonder. Stevie is an all-time great. He’s high up there on my list.
I’m a little surprised you didn’t remix a Stevie Wonder record on this project.
Nah, they wouldn’t let me. Stevie would have had to approve it. … I would have probably been under more pressure to touch a Stevie record. You’d have to get his approval and to make sure you did it right. You know, Stevie will curse you out like, “What the hell? What’s this?”
Are there songs that you wanted to remix for this project but didn’t get the chance or the time to?
There are two songs I couldn’t get that I really wanted. One was Diana Ross’ “Brown Baby.” That one would have fit perfect right now with what’s going on in this time: the pandemic, the protests? I tell people all the time, don’t just take my word for it. Go listen to the song. What she’s telling people, because it’s a skin thing, it’s like, “Yo, man, don’t let people get you down. Don’t let that distract you. Lift your head up high.” It’s a beautiful, musical record. And then the other record I wanted was Willie Hutch’s “I Choose You.” I wanted that bad. Just because of the energy in that record and the singing. Man, I was thinking if J-Zone redid the drums of that and we took the blaxploitation vibe somewhere else but kept the energy.
Why didn’t you get the opportunity with that one?
They couldn’t find it.
Are you interested in maybe getting a crack at a couple more of these down the road or do you see this as a one-time project?
I just wanted to vibe out for a minute. I want people to give me their feedback. Maybe it’ll give me ideas to go into another direction.
As your career has progressed, you have focused increasingly on being a producer and DJing. Is there a reason why you’ve been moving more towards production and DJing rather than rapping?
Because it’s easy for me to produce and it’s easy for me to do DJing and things like that because of my love for music. It’s just that simple. I’m not saying I don’t have love for rapping, but the love for rapping, it has to be a vision. I have to top everything I’ve done. And that’s no easy feat. I’m not going to say I can’t do it, but I want to come with a vision. I want to come with a direction of purpose while I’m doing it. Not just, “I can rhyme, let me throw some beats on, drop some rhymes.” No, I need to have a direction of why I’m doing this. I don’t just want to drop something.
It takes a lot because I’m very critical of myself, especially lyrically. Musically, I’m hard on myself. Lyrically, I’m even worse because I know what fans tend to expect from me. I can’t dumb down my formula. I can’t dumb down what you’ve become accustomed to. You know, like, “Yeah, man Trap is in right now. I’m going to do that.” Wooo, my fans would crucify me if I tried that.
So, it’s so easy to do music and I love doing it. And I wake up in the middle of the night if I can’t sleep, it’s 2 or 3am, I go on the turntables. I go listen to some music. It’s music, music, music, music. I’m working on a rap album right now. I’m working on a couple of projects right now. I think doing Motown State of Mind inspired me in a lot of different ways because of things I learned in the process of doing this project.
Do you feel like with this project you sat down and listened to these seven tracks were like, “Alright, this is the type of album I wanted to put out. This is what I envisioned it was going to be?”
I think the Motown project lets people know there’s another side of me that you probably don’t even understand or realize or recognize. Because you’re so used to me being a rap dude or the hip-hop underground dude that I don’t get opportunities to do stuff like this. So, to do this, yeah, I took my time. I wanted it to be damn near perfect. And that’s what I’ve definitely got at the end of the day. I’m happy with it. It’s hard for me to explain how I feel, because I’ve heard the album 6 billion times.
You touched on this a little bit, now do you feel like you get your respect as a producer and your DJing abilities? One of your D.I.T.C. cohorts (Diamond D) is regarded as one of the best producers on the mic. Do you feel like you should be in that conversation, as well?
I know I should be in that conversation. But better yet, I’m better than that, because I’m three ways with it: I’m with the mic, I’m with the turntables, and I’m with the production. So, you got to get up another level to see me on all three. And I’m very nice on all three.
I don’t really let that “best producer on the mic thing” bother me because when you know who you are and you know what you’re capable of, you don’t care what anybody thinks. I don’t. … So, when I’m ready to do something, I do it. People could look at this Motown project like “Yo, I ain’t know.” Well, I knew. People look at me on the turntables and go, “Yo, man. I ain’t know you was like that.” But I knew. Are you doing it for the love or are you doing it for the applause? And if I was doing it for the applause, I would have quit a long time ago just based on what you said. … You prove to them time and time again, that you are that dude. That is it. And you don’t have to prove it to them as long as you prove it to yourself.
Your happiness can’t be attached to somebody else’s compliments. That can’t be a reason why you do it. That could be a fraction, a part. But that can’t be the sole reason. So now when we look at people doing music, doing radio records, and doing certain things, they want everybody’s attention. They’re not doing it for the art no more. They’re doing it for a different reason, and that kind of detracts from the music.
What’s the reason that you’re doing it now?
I love music. Let me tell you a story. This story changed my life. This one legendary dude I look at as my mentor, and there was another rapper that came up during my time. I remember my mentor saying [to the other rapper], “Yo, man, shoot man, you know what, people would love to hear you drop a record.” And the [rapper] was like, “Nah, I had a lot of bad experiences in the game. Now people call me an ‘old head.’ People ain’t really checkin’ for me no more.” And my mentor just basically said, “Well, what did music ever do wrong to you? Because I hear what you tell me, what you went through in the industry, all the problems you went through. But for the record, music ain’t do shit to you, so why are you taking it out on the music?”
And I said, “Wow, that’s deep.” Because there are times that I’ve been through things and it makes you think, “I don’t feel like doing music no more. Fuck music right now.” And music ain’t do shit to you. The things associated with the industry and the business might have done shit to you, but why take it out on music? And that made me take a whole other look at how I look at music and why I do music. And it was like, “find the love” all over again. And the thing you should have never fell out of love from.
Does it ever bother you about not receiving your due respect?
People will know [what I’ve contributed] now or they’ll know it 30 years from now when they’re going to look at my discography. They’re going to look at everything I’ve done over the course of hip-hop, and they’re going to go, “Damn, he did a lot of shit.” A lot of behind-the-scenes shit. A lot of connecting the dots. It’s going to be that type of thing where you read it in a book, trying to connect the dots. But I’m going to write that book. So the dots will be connected.
What else are you working on now?
I’m working on a project called Next Level Nostalgia. And that’s just revisiting The Awakening (1996), but in a certain way, just due to the realities of digital music and ownership. I’m telling a lot of artists if you don’t have provisions in your contract where you can’t re-record that album, if you can re-record it, re-record it. Especially your top hits, especially if you could still knock them the same way. And this way if somebody wants to tamper with that record in the future, you own that record in its totality, instead of labels owning so much and we have to wait 35 years for it to revert back. You’ll get the top songs I’m re-recording. I’ve got Jake One, Nottz, and Tall Black Guy involved, as well as doing all new interludes, and there’s three or four new songs.
Then I’ve got the SP1200 project. Then I’ve got a Boss Man compilation and then you got another project called The Inevitable. I got two labels that’s coming out this year. One is called Underworld Label Group, and the other one’s called Soul Estates. So, one is basically focused on music and instrumentation. There’s live artists and live musicians. And then the other label, Underworld Label Group, is straight hip-hop. I might want to work with artists and produce, finding artists that can do something different. If I can’t have something different, you make my job that much harder.
Are there any plans for D.I.T.C. to record anything on the horizon? Or are you guys doing your own thing these days?
I mean, everybody’s doing so many different things. Fat Joe, Showbiz, and Buckwild are doing all these projects. A.G. got a project and he’s managing now. So, everybody’s doing their own thing, but that’s always what made the D.I.T.C. Unlike Wu-Tang, we didn’t come together as a crew first and then went solo. Everybody’s always been solo and just happened to come together as a crew. It was a powerful moment. And if that moment could be captured again, it’s got to be done right. So, I would never say never, but it’s just doing it right. Having a vision, having a whole plan with it.
So, what are your five favorite albums of all time?
Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, Main Source’s Breaking Atoms, Run-DMC’s Raising Hell, and Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions.
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