Posted on 04/27/2009
To say an artist displays a typical Detroit sound is an exercise in imprecision: the city’s own Awesome Dre will tell you so on “Arrival & Departure,” a two-part production seminar conducted by V-Tech and Apollo Brown. The first half pops with the impact of shrapnel while the later is soulful and pensive. With The D’s ever expanding talent pool, styles span wider ranges. Regardless of where anyone’s from though, A Pipe Dream And A Promise keeps it thorough like lice checks, but mostly because Finale fucking kills it.

Finale’s nonchalance and mic-skills are equally frightening. He’s like 50-Cent, the A-Roid version. But I don’t suppose it hurts to have the supporting cast of Detroit at your back either. Black Milk, Dilla and Invincible lend heavy hands in making A Pipe Dream And A Promise one of the records you should be listening to. “One Man Show,” produced by a dude who knows plenty about one-man-showmanship, Black Milk, is more Scott Storch than Soulquarians, but it’s all him and it’s all heat. “Heat” was produced by Dilla and it flexes on some M.O.P. / tough guys rocking leather jackets in snowstorms type shit. Finale flips it flawlessly and again, his nonchalance and mic-skills are equally frightening.

Dude’s so in the pocket and seemingly laid back, which is off-setting once you inevitably realize his delivery is pretty much breathless, as evidenced on “The Waiting Game,” a muted stinger of a beat, produced by Khrysis of The Justice League. Invincible’s cameo does the foundation proud as she seals her second verse with a rare rap reference to the fable of The Tortoise and The Hare. Finale goes on to shine further over slick beat work by Nottz, Taraach, Oddisee, Kev Brown and Flying Lotus. With a supporting cast like that, almost any record would be at least decent. But A Pipe Dream And A Promise reaches well beyond competence and, by way of supreme lyrical deftness sprinkled over an everyman appeal, Finale should be one to outgrow most in this year’s crop of budding emcees.

- Jeff Artist