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Concert in your area for Funk & Soul and Hip-Hop.
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The group was formed by a trio of rap battle loving pupils of Detroit’s Pershing High School, Jay Dee, T3 and Baatin, in the early 90s. They built up a following in the local underground hip-hop scene with their independent album Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol.1). Meanwhile Jay-Dee branched out into the production world and whilst trying to find a deal for Slum Village, he came into contact with A Tribe Called Quests’ Q-Tip. The pair formed a production collective known as “The Ummah” creating tracks for the likes of Janet Jackson, Busta Rhymes and Whitney Houston.
With Jay-Dee, now renamed J.Dilla creating a buzz for himself as the latest hip hop prospect and securing an opening act slot for Slum Village on A Tribe Called Quest’s farewell tour in the late 90s, the album released their first official studio album, Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol.2) in 2000. The group found major success with their third album Trinity (Past, Present and Future) released two years later. This effort saw Slum Village chart in the top 10 in the US for the first time.
Founding member Baatin left shortly after this album due to health reasons, and was replaced by another Detroit MC, Elzhi. However, J Dilla then decided to leave to focus on his own solo career, and so Slum Village operated as a duo, with T3 and Elzhi. They found success as a duo, releasing a hit single alongside Kanye West and John Legend, entitled, “Selfish”.
After J Dilla’s untimely death in 2006, T3 decided to draft in his brother, Illa J, to recreate the feel of the original Slum Village line up. They released an album in 2010 called Villa Manifesto, before Elzhi decided to leave the group to go solo.
There’s that old adage about The Velvet Underground; that their debut record only sold ten thousand copies, but that every person who snapped one up went on to start a band themselves. I’d like to think that there’s a strong argument for considering Slum Village to be the Velvet Underground of hip hop, because despite the fact that they’ve never met with any serious level of commercial success, their influence on the genre - not least through the magic of founding member J Dilla - is by no means in question. Their debut Fantastic, Vol. 2 remains a staple of the genre, whilst their work after Dilla’s departure displayed an incredible level of forward thinking; just listen to their 2004 track ‘Selfish’, which featured John Legend and Kanye West and blazed a trail for R&B artists for the next decade or so. The current lineup of the group continues to tour; in fact, they’ve lined up a couple of UK dates for later this year. Expect high-energy, instrumentally diverse shows in Leeds and London next month, as T3, Illa J and Young RJ deliver a set that veers between the mellow and laidback and the genuine bangers that litter their back catalogue to date.
Joeg_67
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