T3, Elzhi, Baatin, and J Dilla: All members of Slum Village at one point in their careers. Although Baatin and J Dilla have passed away, and Elzhi isn’t seeing eye-to-eye with original member T3— all four MC’s from Detroit make their way onto the group’s sixth album, Villa Manifesto.
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Since Slum Village is the epitome of true Hip-Hop, it was only right that they invite others who share the same passion for the culture; and they do so by extending hands to DJ Babu [click for interview] (of Dilated Peoples), J Dilla’s little brother in Illa J [click for interview], Phife (of A Tribe Called Quest), ?uestlove, Posdnous (of De La Soul), Little Brother, and Dwele.
The bulk of the production is handled by Slum Village’s extended family member, Young RJ, but beatmiths such as Khrysis, Hi-Tek, Mr. Porter, and of course J Dilla also put their stamp of approval on the project as well.
Slum Village takes you back to the “D” with the sounds of ‘Bare Witness’ with scratches featuring DJ Babu. Over the Krhysis-produced track, the always lyrical Elzhi releases punchlines like, “I keep a n*gga on his toes like he hate sitting.”
J Dilla’s trademark sound then takes over ‘Lock It Down’ as Elzhi once again steals the show, with Dilla’s dirty guitar riffs echoing in the backdrop.
Not to be outdone, Young RJ constructs the soulful and well-executed ode to females on ‘Scheming,’ which features Phife Dawg and Posdnous.
He then follows it up with the Colin Munroe-featured ‘Faster,’ [click for video] which also deals with the opposite, and doubles as arguably being the best song on the record.
Slum then gets back down to the business of MC’ing on ‘2000 Beyond’ with ?uestlove serving as the funky drummer. On ‘Dance’ (feat. AB) SV, goes away from the soulful tempo they set so far, and opt to go a little more up beat on what can be considered as their party/commercial track.
Slum Village then concludes their latest voyage with contributions like ‘The Set Up’ (prod. by Hi-Tek), the percussion-heavy ‘Um Um’ (feat. Keys), and the documentary of ‘Where We Go From Here’ (feat. Little Brother).
As Internet rumors and interviews come out of the woodwork about the future of Slum Village, one thing is certain: Whatever drama they’re going through; it didn’t cloud this record. So if Slum’s reign were to end on Villa Manifesto, it’s still been a Fan-Tas-Tic journey nonetheless.
