In anticipation of the screening for SBX! (which took place earlier this evening) Ego Trip published an interview with Lord Finesse wherein he discusses his legendary battle with Percee P.
How would you rank your 1989 battle with Percee P amongst all the rhyme battles you’ve been in?
Lord Finesse: Oh, this is the number one battle. Nothin’ else compares… This battle was the day before I entered the 1989 [New Music] Seminar [MC Battle For Supremacy]. So I’m goin’ into one battle with my mind set for another battle. I’m thinking the Seminar: I’m goin’ in there, I’m takin’ that. And I got this obstacle in my way before. But you know what I’m gonna run through him and then I’m a get ready for tomorrow. [laughs] And it wasn’t that easy. It wasn’t easy at all.Were you surprised when Jun Ohki, director of SBX!, asked you to revisit the battle for the film?
Lord Finesse: Well, me and Jun-Jun – we go way back to some of my first times I ever went to Japan, before Jun-Jun came to live here [in New York]. Whenever I was out in Japan I used to hang out with him and DJ Muro all the time. That’s all I used to do. Every time I land: “Where y’all at?” We go and eat. Jun-Jun was the mediator.When he came to New York he said he was taking up [film] school and [told me] what he was working on. He said, “Yo, Ness, I want you to be a part of it.” I was like, aight cool! Did I know it was gonna magnify [the battle] to this [level]? Hell no. Shit, it’s crazy.
It’s kind of miraculous that the original battle with Percee was videotaped.
Lord Finesse: The craziest thing about that battle to this day is that a motherfucker actually had a camera to tape it. You know that’s when something is highly anticipated – when the camera’s on hand, especially back in those days. Because niggas wasn’t videotaping no rap battles. I can’t even recall somebody videotaping a rap battle from that era.
