"As far as production, Jay Dee is still around. And we might even have him on a few songs on the next album. He just wanted to establish himself as an MC. And he wanted to do it solo,” T3 states, before explaining everyone's role in Slum Village.“Baatin is more on the spiritual aspect. He goes between spiritual and street. So, sometimes he’ll tell you a story or a situation where he’s trying to teach you something, and other times he’ll tell you where he’s been before in the streets. Like him turning from the streets to a more spiritual vibe. I’m more of the commander, the spokesman of the group. I bring everything together. As far as lyrically on this album, my lyrics are both aggressive and nonchalant at the same time.”
Detroit, is Slum Village’s home town. This city that was home to the Motown sound, and the race riots of 1968, is also responsible for developing a Hip-Hop scene that produced MC. Breed, Eminem, Royce Da 5’9, D12, and Slum Village. According to T3, it’s a small scene, that has only one real “Hip-Hop” club worth visiting in the city. It’s amazing that an area with such a small Hip-Hop scene has produced artists that are so diverse in nature. Even though they all know each other, they maintain different styles and sounds.
“We all came up in the same spot called The Hip-Hop Shop, back in 1993. Everybody use to go there and do their freestyles. Eminem, Royce, Elzhi. That was just the spot, everybody went there,” T3 explains before continuing. “I think a lot of MCs from Detroit are diverse. If you listen to MC. Breed, then us, then Eminem, there’s three different sounds within one place. I think that we’re all just real clickish. So we roll with each other, but we wouldn’t probably be up in each other’s studio sessions or nothing like that. I know Em, we cool, but we just do our own thing. That’s how we are. And that’s what makes the sound so diverse.”
Trinity-Past, Present, Future is a conceptual album. It represents the old sound that SV is known for, the present which is more clubbish in your face joints, and the futuristic songs representing the SV sound in 2020.“We were basically trying to take three time eras of music and put them together on one album And also, we were trying to establish Elzhi as an MC to the world. He basically brings that freestyle, battle MC element to Slum Village that we never had before.”With Tainted getting regular airplay, SV is poised to release What is This as their next single. This a joint that they feel is a representation of the present sound in Hip-Hop.
“These are more club joints, that you can dance to more than the laidback Tainted. And that’s where a lot of rap music is at today. That’s our way of representing that, and still staying in the Slum Village vibe.”With so much monotony in the Hip-Hop game, it’s good to get a breath of new life and energy to revitalize this music. I just hope that the SV sound gets more attention this time around, without conforming to mainstream standards in order to get airplay.“People try to put us in a genre of lyricists. Not that we can’t do that, but our music was basically using our vocals as instruments to blend with the track. Now it has changed and gotten more involved on Trinity. Which is pretty much due to Elzhi. Because, I don’t think people at times understand Slum Village and what we are trying to do. If people listened to our first album, either they loved it or they hated it. But,far as those people that analyze lyrics, they might not have understood what we was all about. We was basically just a fill in to the track…to blend in musically. That’s basically our roles and what were trying to do on this album.”
For more information, click the link below: SLUM VILLAGE
”Slum Village first meant the sound of our music, how gritty and dirty it was. We changed the meaning to a paradox of music. Taking different styles or genres and mixing them together.” T3.