10 Things you don’t know about Slum Village

1.  Slum Village is a hip hop group from Conant Gardens, Detroit, Michigan.

2.  The group was founded in the early 90′s by 3 childhood friends: Baatin, T3, rapper and producer J Dilla

3.  They originally went by the name Ssenepod however today they’re known as Slum Village

4.  J Dilla joined the production team known as The Ummah, which produced the two last A Tribe Called Quest studio albums

5.  Slum Village landed their first record deal in 1998 with Barak/AM records.

6.  J Dilla made the decision to leave the group to pursue his solo career, citing the group was well established enough to move on without him. With J Dilla still around helping Young RJ with production, Baatin and T3 started work on their next album “Trinity” through Barak/Capital Records, featuring Elzhi on 6 of the tracks

7.  The group then became a duo consisting of T3 and Elzhi, Baatin became sick touring shortly before the release of their 2004 album, Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit) and departed to seek treatment

8.  Tragedy struck in 2006 in the form of the loss of founding member J Dilla, to lupus, which put the group on a 4 year hiatus. In 2009, T3 reunited Baatin with the group, brought in Illa J (of Yancey Boys fame and J Dilla’s brother), and along with Young RJ, RJ Rice and Elzhi, started production on their next album, Villa Manifesto

9.  Slum Village went back on the road as a trio including Baatin. Later in 2009, Slum village performed at Rock the Bells as a trio consisting of T3, Elzhi and Baatin, with the latter still coping with bipolar schizophrenia making him unable to travel when the tour continued into Canada that year. While T3 and Elzhi performed the Canadian shows, tragedy struck for a second time, claiming Baatin that summer at home in Detroit, his death was felt deeply throughout the Detroit Hip Hop scene.

10.  T3 is the only original member hold down the legacy, and Grammy nominated producer Young RJ and Illa j, the young prodigy at his side