If you’re looking for deep down, good vibes music, a good starting point is Butter Roll founder Amy Collado‘s “Finesse” music playlists. Created first monthly, then weekly by various artists and entrepreneurs since December 2017, the effort is a natural extension of her platform’s “Amy’s Playhouse” roller skating and domino parties rooted in a goal of “maintaining the mental/social well being of under-recognized communities.”
Recently, we spoke to Collado about the origin of the “Finesse” playlists. Check out the exchange via email below. Make note, Snobette curated her latest playlist, volume No. 27.
Snobette: Where did the idea of the Butter Roll Finesse playlists come from?
Amy Collado: “It wasn’t supposed to be a playlist series. I wanted original mixes that would drop every six months or so, but it became difficult to find a DJ willing to turn one around fast enough. I’m a particular kind of person so I wanted something hella clean and fresh.
“Anyway, one boring winter Saturday night while showering I was thinking about how much I loved the Hot 97’s “Blazin’ Hip Hop and R&B” volumes from the ’90s/’00s before iPods became a thing and downloading music was still rare in the hood–we had good ole bootleg CDs still. I was annoyed I couldn’t find any of them online so I decided I could just do my own volume series. Of course, I was a little worried, because I didn’t want people to think “so now everyone is a DJ,” much respect to DJs for real, but I decided the idea felt right so I thought to myself, fuck it, I’m doing it.”
As time went on, people started asking if they could suggest songs for upcoming playlists. I asked a handful people I thought had great musical taste just to get us to an even volume 10, but I ended up getting so many yeses that I decided to see who else was down to do it just for fun. Next thing I knew, in a matter of two days I went from securing volumes nine to 32.”
I was only dropping once a month the playlists once a month, but increased to once a week to get them out. I decided it was “The People’s Playlist” because it’s meant to be this ultimate playlist with hundreds of songs, a never-ending playlist made by the people. Contributors are from all different creative and professional backgrounds because we are all connected through music, and we all have a little DJ in us.”
As of now, we are set to wrap at Vol. 45 in December 2018, one year since the first drop. But who knows, maybe I’ll keep it going, if the people choose it to keep going of course.”
Check out Snobette’s “The Finesse” playlist below and stream it on Spotify here.
