Slum Village Releases New Album, Addresses Break-Up Rumors

It’s been a trying past few years for Detroit’s Slum Village, to say the least. As if the passing of the legendary J Dilla in February 2006 wasn’t enough, group founder Baatin went on to join the ancestors late last year. But anyone that says SV isn’t resilient isn’t paying close enough attention, as evidenced by the group, now made up of  surviving founder T3, eLZhi and long-time producer Young RJ releasing their sixth studio album Villa Manifesto on July 27.

In a recent interview on HipHopDX.com, T3 and Young RJ talked to reporter Sean Ryon about everything Slum-related, from the ups and downs and personal changes over the years, break-up rumors that have been surfacing around the Internet recently, the memories and legacies of Dilla and Baatin, and what fans can expect from the new offering.

“This album is like a spectrum of all aspects of Slum Village, which is great,” T3 tells HipHopDX about Manifesto. “You’ve got a song on there with just me, Baatin and J Dilla, and then you’ve got the other Slum Village, which is me, Baatin and eLZhi, and then you’ve got the other Slum Village which is just me and eLZhi, and then you’ve got the possible future Slum Village [with] Illa J…you’re getting a full spectrum of Slum Village, and that’s why if this [album] is the last album, I’ll be happy with that because the chapter is ending on a whole broad spectrum. If you like Slum Village in any form of Slum Village, then you’re going to be happy with this album.”

The video for the first single, “Faster” featuring singer Colin Munroe, is currently posted on YouTube and WorldStarHipHop.com. According to Young RJ, “this was actually the first record we recorded for the Villa Manifesto album. I came with the beat, and I called T3 and said ‘Man, I’ve got your single.’ And he said ‘Oh really?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m not sure what you’re going to think, but I love it’…so I played it for him, and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve got something for that.’ He ran in the booth, and 20 minutes later, he had his verse done and we went and got Baatin, he put his verse down, then El, he put his verse down.”

Addressing questions of this possibly being Slum’s final album, T3 tells HipHopDX that he personally put out the statement that Villa Manifesto could be the last offering from the group. “It’s not because of any beefs or anything, it’s just the fact that the way this album is put together with me, J Dilla, Baatin and eLZhi and featuring [J Dilla’s younger brother] Illa J on there, I really don’t know where to take it from there…it’s kind of up in the air right now whether we’ll do another album or not because half of the group is not here anymore. They’re only here in the spiritual form. I don’t know what to do from there. Mostly, that’s the biggest drawback.”

The full interview with Slum Village is available at HipHopDX.com. Villa Manifesto is available online and in stores now. Fans can follow the group on MySpace, Twitter and on their website at SlumVillage.com.

BHF10: Black Milk, Back By Popular Demand

Whatever doesn’t kill you makes your music stronger. That’s one of the many life lessons Detroit native Black Milk learned over the last year. The producer/emcee best known for his soulful work with Slum Village is back with his third solo album this year — one that not only pushed his limits musically, but personally as well. It is his thirst for creativity that not only garners respect amongst his peers but also made him a shoe in for this year’s bill at the 6th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. We caught up with the 26-year-old as he was putting the final details together for his new album and discussed what he has in store for BHF10, the situations that made Album of the Year so personal and the largest accomplishment of his career. Hint: it has something to do with another Detroit native we are honored at the Bodega Education Initiative.

BB: This has been a busy year for you, performing at SXSW earlier and now you are on the bill for the 2010 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Are you excited about the festival?

BM: Oh yeah! This will be my first time there. I wanted to do the previous one with my last album but it didn’t happen, so I am excited.

BB: Okay, let’s start with a basic question: what does your name signify?

BM: Nothing, really. There is no real deep meaning to it. I was coming out at a time when a lot of dudes were doing their thing in Detroit and I wanted a name that stood out from them, one that you would remember. So that’s how I came up with that, it was just different. I figured that name would make you look twice on a flyer or an album, whether you like it or not [laughs].

BB: How did you develop your sound? What type of music influenced you the most?

BM: I guess just by being around older cats — friends and cousins that were already into underground Hip-Hop. So they exposed me to A Tribe Called Quest, Outkast, De La Soul, Common and Mos Def –- all those type of artists. So I just took to that sound, gravitated towards it. It sparked me to start writing my own lyrics and producing my own music. Once I got the bug for producing, my love for that grew bigger than emceeing. Now, I’m at a point where I am trying to create new sounds and different styles of music and incorporate it with Hip-Hop. Not just the basic beats you would normally hear or rhymes you would normally hear or cadences. You’ll see that in my project that’s coming out in September.

BB: I could see the beginnings of that in Tronic. You experimented a little bit on that album, right?

BM: Yeah, Tronic was definitely the start. I really didn’t go too left with Tronic though. I honestly didn’t go too far left on the new album either, it’s like Tronic on steroids. The new album is just a little more musical, almost all of the songs have some type of live instrumentation on it. So it takes the music to another place.

BB: So this infamous new album you are referring to is called Album of the Year. Got a release date for it yet?

BM: Yes, September 14th. Just got the official date in today.

BB: I know you spoke about pushing the limits musically on this album, but what else can we expect? How else is Album of the Year different from your previous works?

BM: It’s kind of a mix of both Popular Demand and Tronic. People look at Popular Demand as the more soulful side of my music and Tronic as more experimental and futuristic. So this album fuses both of those styles. And like I mentioned before, I got to incorporate more live music this time using my drummer Daru Jones from New York and soul singer, Keith Morgan Staff, from Cleveland. So they just took it to another place musically. It’s hard to really explain but this is more organic than the last two albums.

BB: I originally was going to ask you what made you decide to transition from producer to emcee, but what most people don’t know is you actually did both from the start, right?

BM: Yeah, I was emceeing first, so the rap thing is second nature to me. I got into production later on after I already started writing. The whole process of digging for records and drum machines and creating sounds, I just fell in love with that. On this project I got a whole new respect for writing again.

BB: Why did you title this project Album of the Year? What’s the significance there?

BM: I titled it that because it [Album of the Year] captured the whole moment in time from Tronic up to this point. That was a crazy year for me and it came out in the lyrics. So, that was the first time I got kind of personal on the writing tip. Usually people are used to me having feel-good music but this time around since I went though some crazy shit, I couldn’t help but express it through the music. And it made the writing aspect more interesting for me, it made me want to speak deeper in the lyrics because I actually had something to say. That was the first time I feel the level of the lyricism had to match the level of the production – I was focused on both equally.

BB: Yes, 2009 was crazy. You lost a great friend, Baatin of Slum village, R.I.P., and you also had your manager fall ill. How were you able to bounce back from all that and work on music again?

BM: Well, I had already started recording a little bit of the album before shit got crazy. So when things did start going down, I had no choice but to write about it. Now I understand when people say artists make the best music when they go through hard times. I understand the philosophy behind it now. Not to say it’s some emo shit the entire album, but I am speaking on Baatin passing, speaking on my car accident, speaking on the situation of my manager getting sick, all that happened within a few months so I had to deal with it on the album.

BB: Not only was Baatin a friend but you credit him with launching your professional career. How did that go down?

BM: Baatin was the dude that introduced me and my beats to Slum Village because he was already cool with my older cousins and friends. He was always around them and they told him what I was doing with beats when I first started. So he ended up breaking them to Slum. At the time I guess they heard a song they liked and Baatin called me and asked me to bring some more by the studio. They liked a couple tracks for the Trinity album ["What Is This", "Trinity (Interlude)" ] and I’ve been working with those dudes ever since.

BB: So in working with them, you’ve had the opportunity to work with J. Dilla, right? How was that experience? We are actually honoring him this year in the Bodega Education Initiative. [Is there] anything you can say about his work ethic, or him as a person?

BM: Yeah, we recorded a couple of tracks for B.R. Gunna’s album, Dirty District 2 (“Stupid”, “Do Ya Thang”), and then he got on another beat with me called “Reunion” for the Detroit Deli album. Working with him was one of the greatest achievements of my career. He was just such a laidback dude, very chill and humble. He liked to stay behind the scenes as everybody knows. He just gave off such a great vibe and energy anytime you are around him. Musically, I didn’t get a chance to sit in the studio and watch him craft beats or nothing like that, so that’s a part I did miss. But other than that, what sticks out to me about him was that he was such a good dude, besides being gifted musically.

BB: You’ve worked with a lot people, including Duck Down’s Sean Price as well as Guilty Simpson on the Random Axe project. How was it working with them? When will that project be done?

BM: [Laughs] Yes, we toured in Europe together in ’09 and that’s the first time I got to really be around Sean a lot and get to know his personality. He’s probably one of the funniest dudes I ever met in my life. He says what he wants to say, he does what he wants and of course he is a beast with the lyrics. I think me, him and Guilty working together is just a good vibe because we all on the same page, we all kind of have the same way of thinking when it comes to the music industry and how we approach music. So the Random Axe album is about 70 percent done. Sean is going to fly out here in July after I get back from the festival to put the finishing touches on it, so hopefully we’ll get that wrapped up then.

BB: How do you pick and choose your projects and people you work with?

BM: As an artist, I want to say I pick and choose based on what I would want to hear. Most of the times when I am working on music or concepts for an album its mostly what I would want to hear, so when it starts off like that you end up with an album that everyone else wanted to hear too, you probably touch on some shit that been on other people’s mind already. I just go off of whatever I am feeling at that time whether I want to do an instrumental album, a collabo album or a solo album.

BB: So what can we expect from your performance at the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival? What do you have in store for us?

BM: Well basically I’m going to do some new stuff off the upcoming album and of course doing some older stuff from Popular Demand. I only have a 15 minute block so I can’t really do as much as I want to. But this show is pretty much going to be my first rehearsal for the new music and the first time I’m letting people hear what it sounds like.

BB: What other projects do you have in the works?

Right now I’m working on this project with a female singer named Melanie Rutherford. She’s a real dope soul singer so that’s the vibe I’m on right now. I wanna do some left, Gnarls Barkley type shit right now. I’m gonna have Album of the Year wrapped up and that will be out September 14th. Other than that my main focus is just making sure the Random Axe project is right. And then I guess look for something new to do musically.

PURCHASE TICKETS TO THE 2010 BROOKLYN HIP-HOP FESTIVAL

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BHF10, VISIT BKHIPHOPFESTIVAL.COM

New Baatin mixtape from Wajeed

Check out this banging mix from Bling 47 and Bodega Fam Wajeed (My nigga Wajigga got beats by the pound)

Download Here

Brooklyn Bodega Radio – The Baatin Episode

Check out our show on August 7th with Wes Jack, Xavier and NSR
We spoke about the passing of Baatin from Slum Village.
Special guest Dee Phunk of Rare Form.

Download Here

Brooklyn Bodega Radio every Friday from 1-4 p.m. on PNC Radio

New Slum Village Video

Exclusive SLUMVILLAGE VIDEO “Actin Normal” from SCRAPDIRTY on Vimeo.

With the reunited lineup of Baatin Rasul Rasi, T3, and Elzhi for Seven
Directed by Dwele G
Produced by Kareem Riggins (…beats making me fiendish)
Miss you Baatin

Memorial tribute organized quickly for rapper Baatin

As the sun set Sunday, members of the tight-knit Detroit hip-hop community gathered to pay tribute to one of Motor City rap’s brightest stars.

Titus (Baatin) Glover, the Detroit rapper who cofounded the acclaimed trio Slum Village, was found dead at the age of 35 Saturday morning.

“He taught me so much, not just musically but about life,” Miz Korona, the evening’s host, said Sunday. “The way he was on his songs was the way he was in life.”

Held at 5 Elements Gallery in Detroit, “Gone Too Soon: A Benefit for the Family of Titus ‘Baatin’ Glover” had drawn about 70 people by 9:30 p.m. and was expected to feature performances and DJ sets by Jessica Care Moore, DJ K-Fresh and DJ Sicari, who owns the gallery.

Ty Townsend, road manager for Slum Village the last 7 years, said he organized the benefit to help Glover’s family. Townsend added that a second memorial is planned for the African World Festival on Aug. 14, which is to feature Detroit musician Amp Fiddler.

“When people talk about Detroit in hip-hop circles it was because of people like Baatin,” said Kelly Frazier, DJ K-Fresh. “He brought so much energy. He was different. He was Detroit soul.”

The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office said Sunday it found no evidence of trauma on Glover’s body and that toxicology tests results are pending.

The Detroit Police Department said it isn’t treating the death as a homicide, unless the medical examiner provides information to the contrary.

Glover left Slum Village in 2002, later telling the Free Press he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He continued to record and play occasional solo dates before returning to the Slum fold for the group’s upcoming album, “Villa Manifesto,” due Sept. 22.

The group’s 2000 national debut, “Fantastic Vol. 2,” landed on critics’ best-of lists and set the stage for Slum’s highest-profile commercial release, “Trinity,” two years later.