Slum Village
is a hip hop group from Conant Gardens, Detroit, Michigan.
The group was formed by three members: rappers Baatin (deceased, 31 July 2009) and T3, plus rapper and producer Jay Dee. Jay Dee left in 2002 to pursue a solo career with MCA Records and was replaced by Elzhi, after which Baatin also left due to health complications.
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Jay Dee era
Baatin, T3, and Jay Dee grew up together in the
Conant Gardens neighborhood of
Detroit and attended Pershing High School. The group steadily became popular in Detroit's
underground hip hop scene. Jay Dee also became a member of the production team known as
The Ummah, which produced the two last
A Tribe Called Quest studio albums, as well as hits for a number of
R&B and hip hop musicians. Slum Village's first album, 1996's
Fantastic, Vol. 1
, was not officially released until 2005 but highly sought after in underground circles. In 1998, the group opened for another hip hop trio, the above-mentioned
A Tribe Called Quest, on their farewell tour.
Originally signed to the now defunct
A&M record label, the group were forced to postpone the release of their official debut album due to label politics, but in June 2000 they released
Fantastic, Vol. 2
on
GoodVibe Recordings. Also that year they released an album called
Best Kept Secret
, under the alias
J-88
, which featured remixes and leftover material from
Fantastic, Vol. 1
.
Elzhi era
For the 2002 release of
Trinity (Past, Present and Future)
on
Barak/
Capitol Records, T3 brought in
Elzhi to join the group as Jay Dee left to focus on his solo career. The album was a moderate success and contained the single "Tainted", produced by
Karriem Riggins and featuring
Dwele. Also in 2002,
Dirty District
, a compilation of songs by Detroit rappers largely produced by T3 and "RJ" Rice, was released.
The group then became a duo consisting of T3 and Elzhi, when Baatin became sick touring in France shortly before the release of their 2004 album,
Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit)
and departed to seek treatment . The album included the hit single, "Selfish", produced by
Kanye West and featuring
John Legend. The song samples a part of the intro to the hit song "Call Me" by
Aretha Franklin. After parting ways with Capitol Records in 2005, they released
Prequel to a Classic
, a mixtape of mostly previously unreleased material, followed by a self-titled release in October of the same year.
Former member Jay Dee died on
February 10,
2006 after being diagnosed with
TTP and
Lupus.
[1]
T3 has said in a interview that slum village has reunited with Baatin and has added Illa J(J Dilla's Brother) to bring a Dilla effect. He is quoted "Slum Village is totally not that at all,” T3 adds. “I’m incorporating Baatin, and I’m putting Illa J in—not to take Dilla’s place, but just to have that essence of Dilla on this new project. I’m pulling together all the producers that we’ve used before—Black Milk, Wajeed , Karriem Riggins, Pete Rock and all the people who have been down with SV from day one.”
[2]
Future projects by Slum Village include an album made with unused J Dilla beats
[3], and an album produced mostly by Black Milk.
[4]
Baatin passed away on July 31, 2009 at the age of 35. His was found dead Saturday, in his home on 14000 Anglin Street in northeast
Detroit.
[5] Medical examiners have said that there were no visible signs of
trauma or
foul play.
[6] The cause of death currently remains unknown.
[7] His death deeply affected the Detroit hip-hop scene.
[7]
Villa Manifesto
will be released on their Barak Records on September 22, 2009, featuring the late Baatin as well as the brother of the late J Dilla, Illa J.
[9]
Solo work
After his leaving the group circa 2000, J Dilla had a successful solo career before his death in 2006.
Elzhi has released two mixtapes:
Witness My Growth
and
Europass
, and one album,
The Preface
, which was released on Fat Beats Records in August 2008. A demo tape with
Dwele titled
The Breakfast Club
has also circulated.
Baatin's album
Titus: Chapter 10, Verse 13
was to be released on the label
Operation Unknown but has not yet seen official released.
T3 released a mixtape in 2006 titled
Olio
.
J Dilla's brother, Illa J, released an album titled
Yancey Boys
for
Delicious Vinyl in 2008.
Discography
Studio Albums
- 1997 Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1)
(official release: 2005 through Counterflow Records)
- 2000 Fantastic, Vol. 2
(GoodVibe Recordings)
- 2002 Trinity (Past, Present and Future)
(Barak/Capitol Records)
- 2004 Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit)
(Capitol Records)
- 2005 Slum Village
(Barak Records)
Compilations
- 2000 Best Kept Secret
(under the alias J-88) (Groove Attack Productions)
- 2002 Dirty District
(Sequence Records)
- 2005 Prequel to a Classic
(Barak Records)
Singles
- 1999 "Get Dis Money" (Interscope)
- 2000 "Climax" (GoodVibe Recordings)
- 2000 "Raise It Up" (GoodVibe Recordings)
- 2002 "Tainted" (featuring Dwele) (Barak/Capitol Records)
- 2002 "Disco (Remix)" (featuring Ms. Jade & Raje Shwari) (Barak/Capitol Records)
- 2004 "Selfish" (featuring Kanye West and John Legend) (Capitol Records)
- 2004 "Do U" (Capitol Records)
- 2005 "EZ Up" (Barak Records)
- 2009 "Cloud 9" (featuring Marsha Ambrosius) (Barak Records)
Appearances
- 2000: "One-4-Teen (Funky For You)" (from the Bahamadia album BB Queen
)
- 2000: "Thelonius" (from the Common album Like Water For Chocolate
)
- 2001: "LTAH" (from the Hi-Tek album Hi-Teknology
)
- 2003: "Wolves" (from the Phat Kat album The Undeniable LP
)
- 2004: "Da Villa" (from the Pete Rock album Soul Survivor II
)
- 2004: "Aerodynamic (Slum Village Remix)" (from the Daft Punk Album Daft Club
)
- 2005: "Keep On" (from the Dwele album Some Kinda...
)
- 2006: "Time Has Come" (from the Exile album Dirty Science
)
- 2007: "Cuz I'm Jazzy" (from Guru album Jazzmatazz, Vol. 4
)
- 2007: "Action" (from the Black Milk album Popular Demand
)
- 2007: "Gangsta Boogie" (from the Pete Rock album NY's Finest
)
- 2007: "Got Me Goin' (Hip Hop)" (from the Statik Selektah album Spell My Name Right: The Album
)
- 2008: "Brandy" (from the Dwele album Sketches of a Man
)
- 2008: "To Be Determined" (from the Evidence The Layover EP
)
References
- allmusic Biography
- Bot generated title -->
- YouTube - dropmagazine.com Slum Village Interview - Part 1
- YouTube - dropmagazine.com Slum Village Interview - Part 2
- http://www.detnews.com/article/20090805/ENT09/908050408/1424/ENT04
- http://www.freep.com/article/20090805/ENT04/90805042/1035/rss04
- Detroit Free Press
- Detroit Free Press
- Detroit free press