‘The Talented Mr. Finley’ Teams With Nipsey Hussle on Debut

Las Vegas native Mr. Finley could have gone the easy route and drawn from the West Coast sound, given the geographical proximity of the casino-prone metropolis to Cali. But while he's focused on creating a specific sound for his city, he's still gone against his instincts and reached out to another up-and-coming West Coast artist to help him out on his solo debut, 'The Talented Mr. Finley.'

"On one song, we've got Nipsey Hussle," he tells The BoomBox. "But that's about the only cameo I've got. We were really just trying to establish that this is meant to be taken seriously on a hip-hop level because of the Vegas music. I really wanted everybody to focus on what was going on in Vegas right now."

After a short stint in the R&B-tinged trio Desert Squad, where he went by the name "Weasy Mac," Mr. Finley got to work on his first solo mixtape. In 2004, the emcee debuted with his 'King of Vegas Vol. 1,' a successful effort that he followed with three sequel street releases in 2005. And after keeping on the solo grind and building a name for himself in his native Vegas, the opportunity arose for Finley to hit up the studio and record a few tracks that eventually ended up in the hands of KP, the creator of Ghet-O-Vision Entertainment and the man responsible for the careers of T.I., Pink and OutKast.

Finley finally signed his major label deal with Def Jam in conjunction with Ghet-O-Vision/K.A.M.P Wess in February 2009, which saw him jet-setting to Atlanta for a few weeks to lay down the 15 to 20 tracks that would become 'The Talented Mr. Finley.' Since then, he has been focusing his attention on the blogs, with plans to shoot a pair of viral music videos for his tracks 'Any Night of the Week' and 'Blowin' That Indo.' Another street effort, 'Mr. Finley: Tha Mothafoccin' Mixtape,' is headed to the Internet. But with his debut slated to hit shelves later this year, Mr. Finley knows that it isn't about the numbers or blogs his music hits -- it's all about opening up the world to what he and his hometown homies have to offer.

"My sound is similar to going out on a Friday night with a case of Red Bulls," Finley says, explaining that though there's a fair share of party joints, it isn't all just fun and games. "I touch on a few of the more serious, darker subjects as far as how hard it is just to be black in the hood and not have money like that. I just want people to get interested in the music and to really say that 'We might not be up on this, we might not be into this yet, but it's worth being into. So maybe I should tell somebody about it'."