Slum Village

Fat Beats Amsterdam 18-03-2000. There was a time when, if someone wanted to come through, originality and making music, just for the sake of making music and expressing yourself was everything. This was the time when the Native Tongues showed HipHop wasn’t just music but a way of life. Positivity and creativity. A Tribe Called Quest, of that Native Tongues crew, may have been the most respected crew in hip hop ever. They had their own sound, which was provided by the Ummah production squad. For the Tribe’s last three albums there was this young producer, JayDee from Detroit.

In 1989 he and MC’s T3 and Baatin formed a group called Slum Village. At that time it seemed the only music coming from Detroit was House or Techno. Along the way to dropping their first album Fantastic vol.1, JayDee did a slack of production work for other artists like the Pharcyde, The Roots, the Bush Babees and others, and more recently Erykah Badu and Common with the Ummah. Now they are set to release their highly anticipated solo album, which should’ve been released for quite a while if it wasn’t for several bumps in the road. After parting ways with their former label A&M Records (Interscope), they’ve signed to Goodvibe, a coorporative label under Atomic Pop, the same label which has signed quite some artists who were fed up with the business, like Bahamadia, Ice-T, Public Enemy and even The Cure.

Their album Fantastic vol.2 will be released on Goodvibe this May and March 18 they did a in-store performance at Fat Beats, Amsterdam. The basement was kinda small but since there weren’t a lot of people that was okay. Fat Beats needs some kind of airconditioning though, I feel sorry for the people at Hip hop 120. After Kid Sublime played some records, T3 and Baatin decided it was time for them to grab the mics and told us JayDee wasn’t here because he had to do production work on Erykah Badu’s next album. First they did a little freestyling, over some other artists instrumentals with Kid Sublime on the Technics. After a couple of verses it was time for the real ish. While they were taking of their sweaters and jackets Brainpower got his time to shine on the mic with a little freestyling.

When T3 and Baatin got back on the mic it was on for real. They did some of their more well known tracks and some less known but the shit was banging anyway, a mix of all kinds of HipHop which makes it their own style. Smooth, soulfoul beats and hard speakerblowing basses, could best be described by Jigga G’s reaction when their own beats started to blast: "Jezusssssssssss!".

Claiming they always bring the right kind of energy to the stage, they proved (in a basement) they can live up to their own standards, showcasing "Electricity, and a total abundance of energy", and not only when they are rapping. They make sure you get into their groove, you can feel the music. Everybody threw their elbows against the ceiling, they know what it’s all about. After a short break T3 took some time out to parlay with the ART12 crew…

Loot: Wassup with your new label?
T3: After we left A&M we looked for a label with more artistic posibilities. We hooked up with Goodvibe which is part of Atomic Pop and our music will be distributed by Virgin Wordplay London throug out Europe.
Loot: How do you feel about bootlegging?
T3: Uhm…Haha, yeah I think bootlegs are 'aight, it’s extra promotion for us, and since we basicly bootlegged ourselves too by selling some copies we had some extra money and got our name out on the streets. Y’all gotta cope the album anyway, cause there will be two brand new tracks on it.

Loot: What do you think about the Detroit HipHop scene?
T3: Well it wasn’t very big in the past, but now it’s 'aight. We got some nice acts from Detroit like Eminem, his group the Dirty Dozen, Paradime and others, the lack of a real big name artist only gave us extra motivation.
Loot: You aren’t goin to do any big shows here, what’s the reason you came to Amsterdam?
T3: We’re here for one week promoting our music, get the name out on the streets, just having a good time too. In May when the album is gonna drop we’ll come back and perform some more.
Loot: Aight, one last question, I was talking to someone about your music, we were wondering what kinds of music do y’all sample?
T3: Aw, all kinds of samples, all kinds of music; Soul, Funk, Alternative… We’ve got a wide perspective. We even try to flip Country music. Basicly if the music is good, it’s good, no matter what kind of music it is…

Txt: Loot
Photo's: AQ
On the roll with: Mickey

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www.atomicpop.com