Finale Odds & Ends

In true hip-hop fashion, Odds & Ends is a producer-rapper collaborative record between beatsmith Oddisee and rapper Finale. These two have been steadily growing their respective fan bases over the years with stellar underground releases, but that all came to a head in 2009 for both artists. Oddisee's group album In the Ruff with Diamond District and Finale's A Pipe Dream & A Promise made many critics' year-end lists for hip-hop. Aside from what's likely to be a killer combination of talents on Odds & Ends, this Detroit-Washington D.C. connection is significant for a bigger reason: these two cities are becoming (underground) hip-hop strongholds.

Abstract by Andrew Martin