Dylan Finely is part of the Full Effekk crew from Oshkosh that seems to pump out some of the better local artists of the area. It’s hard not to find at least one of their members at a hip-hop show in the area, they are literally everywhere. UW-Oshkosh’s annual Bye Gosh Fest, a music concert to celebrate the end of the school year, saw Finley open for Timeflies at a packed parking lot outside Kolf Sports Center. Watching the show the first thing I noticed, and this is said with love, is that Finley does not look like your typical rapper or hip-hop artist. In a testament to the power of music though, the crowd didn’t seem to mind much and got into his music, which is hard not to. Finley dropped his first album, The Unknown King, back in April. It’s an ambitious project and features a lot of risks that I’ve come to expect from Full Effekk members. The first song out of the gate begins with roughly a minute long piano intro before sliding into the verse, leaving the piano track in the background. The track as a whole is 6 minutes long, which is a bit bold for an opener, but trust me at the end of that song you’ll be surprised it was that long. The vocal work and rhymes work so well together that the song just flows and takes you with it. Finley’s lyrics are stuffed with introspection, looking inward toward’s Finley’s mind and personality as opposed to focusing on outward things. With usually uplifting beats and a lighter sound, the title track takes a heavier dive. The baseline and beat of the track sounds like it could be the backing to a video game boss fight and gone are the vocal harmonies that populate some of his other songs. 96.9 The Fox in Oshkosh has a “Homegrown” block that features local artists has been giving Finley’s Bad Girl some radio play as well, for obvious reasons. It starts right off the bat with some screeching guitar courtesy of David Pieltia, member of Oshkosh metal band Shield the Survivors, and takes on the idea dating and dealing with less than reputable girls.
Overall, The Unknown King is a solid album and really gives a good sense of Finley as a person and an artist. The lyrics are simple, but relatable. Everybody can find something they identify with in his songs and the energy in them is contagious. You can check out his Soundcloud here, I highly recommend it.
MIDWEST MUSIC COLLECTIVE 