Artist Of The Week - Final Outlaw

Artists and fans involved in NYC’s underground hip-hop scene should be at least slightly familiar with Brooklyn’s Final Outlaw by now. His mix-CD, titled We’re All Gonna Die, made a nice impact when it was released and his single off of the Hip-Hop 4ever album, which was the title track, has received more than 20,000 plays on YouTube. His vibe is one most everyone can get down with; “we just have to work harder to help each other,” he says, “that’s all.” This week, after seeing a few powerful live performances by Final Outlaw, I caught up with him to find out more about his music, the story behind his name, and experiencing homelessness up close and personal.

Adam Bernard: You have a fairly incredible life story, moving all around NYC and even being homeless for a bit. If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you end up homeless?
Final Outlaw: We had been living in Washington Heights and my sister was born with Down Syndrome. My mother’s initial reaction was “let’s get out of the city,” so we went to North Carolina. I was 12 years old when we moved and we spent five years there, which a lot of people don’t know. By the time we returned to New York City the only place we had to stay was my aunt’s house in Dyckman, which is 200th street and above in Manhattan. She was living in an unstable place, and was renting out one of the rooms. We ended up being discovered by the super and he had us taken out. I spent a month or two in Fort Lee, NJ, where I have some other family, but things didn’t work out so well over there, so we had to make a decision to either go back down south or stay in the city. We decided to stay in the city and that meant that the harsh reality that we had to go through the shelter system. That’s how we ended up homeless. We ended up moving from shelter to shelter, occasionally being placed in hospitals that had been abandoned, or in a motel room for a night, but there were a couple nights where we had to sleep in the car. I actually think other people have it far worse. The only thing I feel bad about is my little sister, she has Down Syndrome and there’s no reason she should be sleeping in a car, in America.

Adam Bernard: How has going through all that informed your work and your work ethic?
Final Outlaw: There’s a lot of emotion involved in a situation like that and it helps my music because I don’t want to forget what happened. Often we see artists that have come from situations like mine and somewhere along the line material things and a superficial lifestyle become more important than where they came from and that’s sad because we’re supposed to give hope to people. I was a teenager when I was homeless, and if I can tell a story that can make someone feel like they’re not alone, I feel great, I feel happy about that. Remembering where I come from helps me stay grounded, it helps me remember to not get too happy about a check, or an article in some magazine, because I have a story to tell, I can’t forget that.

Adam Bernard: Speaking of the stories you have to tell, I know some of them are in your music, so why don’t you tell me a little bit about that. Your first mix-CD, We’re All Gonna Die, had a real sunny happy name for an album.
Final Outlaw: Yeah {laughs}, no doubt about it, but believe it or not it does have a message behind it. I spoke to my brother, and to other friends, and we eventually asked; what messages does Final Outlaw want to put out? We’re All Gonna Die is the first thing that came to mind. When you break it down, in life you find yourself in a lot of discussions and debates with people and it turns out a lot of the time you’re bickering about nonsense. At the end of the day we are all gonna die, and since that’s the case then we all need to focus on more important things in life. Also, if that’s what to become of us all, then that literally means that we’re all the same, because there is no creature that I've come across that is eternal, so We’re All Gonna Die is also, in a sense, telling you that we are the same, we bleed the same colors, we all have an expiration date, and we need to begin looking at each other with more empathy, with more sympathy, with more of a helping hand. People bicker a lot over petty things, like skin color, which I consider petty because, only in theory, let’s say an alien race came down to earth and they wanted to destroy everyone. I think they would laugh at us because we can’t even come together and fight together as one because of a stupid thing like skin color.

Adam Bernard: That’s the first thing I’ve ever heard said about aliens that seems reasonable. Now, after We’re All Gonna Die came out you did another version of the album with totally original beats, and then the “Hip-Hop 4ever” single came out, which was huge. Up next is Unstoppable Love. When do you think we’ll start hearing music from that project?
Final Outlaw: I think you’re gonna see singles coming out, maybe even music videos, within the next few months and then the album will probably be closer to the summer. I’m working on two videos right now.

Adam Bernard: Great! Incidentally, I really dig your name. Tell me about its origins. What do you feel makes you an outlaw, and even more importantly, what makes you the FINAL outlaw?
Final Outlaw: Ever since I was younger I always felt that too much of our life is chosen by outside sources; where we work, where we go to school, what our name is gonna be. I’ve always been somewhat of a rebel, and at the time I was living in North Carolina I went to a school that was extremely racist and there was a lot of gang activity, which surprised me because the neighborhood that we had moved into was a good one. We had things we didn’t have before. We went from a little apartment to a full backyard, a full front yard, a garage and everything. So I was going to this school and they didn’t know what a Puerto Rican or a Dominican person was. The only things they knew (about Latin people) were from television. I had been referred to as Taco Bell, or Paco, or Jose, they would just make up names for my brother and I. The thing was, in a school where there’s a lot of gang activity you gotta be very careful. I swallowed a lot of my pride, and eventually a lot of that turned into violence. My school education took a nosedive because I was more concerned with whether I was gonna end up in a fight again than actually passing a test. At the same time I started feeling like I was the only one that had an intellect. Everyone was more concerned with sex and drug and pop culture and violence while I was very curious about cultures and art and history and things of that nature. I eventually felt like I was the only one. That’s where Final comes from. I also felt that as a Latino, or anybody that falls under the minority umbrella, which I call it, even though I don’t believe in the word minorities, anybody that falls under that category is somewhat treated like a criminal to a certain extent.

Adam Bernard: Hence you were the Final Outlaw.
Final Outlaw: Exactly. I sort of just embraced it.

Adam Bernard: This has been a really serious interview, so let’s lighten the mood a bit. Close things out by telling me about something absolutely ridiculous that you enjoy.
Final Outlaw: This is a good question. I have to admit, I’ll watch a horror movie with my friends and instead of being frightened or scared of really bloody scenes, my reaction is to laugh. I don’t know why. I think I share that with other people, but it’s very ridiculous. I think it’s wrong, but I just can’t help myself. If I see somebody hit over the head with a two by four I just burst out laughing, or if I see somebody get their arm chopped off with a chainsaw it’s funny to me because I know it’s not real. It gets pretty annoying, but I find it absolutely hilarious. I don’t know why.

Related Links

Website: finaloutlaw.com
Twitter: twitter.com/finaloutlaw
MySpace: myspace.com/finaloutlaw
YouTube: youtube.com/finaloutlawtv