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Along with the passing of Jay Dilla, this year also saw the release of Slum Villages mass-bootlegged debut LP with the original lineup of Baatin, Jay Dee and T3
The hip hop community never really understood the contrast of Jay Dilla; the contrast between his beats and rhymes. We were labelled as underground hip hop. That’s usually associated with conscious lyrics, and that’s the part people didn’t get. Although his beats had that aspect, he kept the music raw. It had that Detroit edge, and Detroit is a street place, it’s grimey. We never saw ourselves as a conscious group, we would just go up and have fun on the mic, but if you do that kind of sound, people expect you to have conscious lyrics. But we weren’t on no Common tip, we were just having fun.
It’s called Fan-tas-tic Vol 1 and it tells our story, the things we went through, the heartaches. People were upset when Dilla left the group, and this album expresses that, dealing with the pressure and coming up with something positive. It’s the first album were we’ve felt comfortable with it being just me and Battin. I feel it’s one of the better pieces we’ve done, it’s better than the last two albums.
It was a tough blow. We all grew up in the same community; both myself and Dilla were real close to Proof. He was like the mayor of Detroit! He brought us all together; we all grew up together on a hip hop tip.
There’s beats you’ve never even heard, stuff for the lab, you know what I’m sayin’? I heard gazillions of stuff; he got beats for days. It’s all in the archives.
It is what it is. I could be mad, but some people, it just takes them a minute to catch on. It’s like us and Slum Village. When Dilla left, people said we were gonna fail, I had a lot of close friends saying we weren’t gonna make it. Same with Dilla, some people just don’t get it, but you have to do it in spite of everything.
Nah. I mean, a few people did, but nothing like now. People are letting down their walls now, letting down their guard. They’re finally starting to appreciate him for what he was, a musical genius. It’s a shame it’s had to come to this for people to start taking notice.
He was the greatest producer that ever lived. The only reason I’m giving him that title is because he could mimic anything, any kind of music. With no band. That’s a great feat. He was meant to do this.
I love working with Q-Tip as we’re already a fam, and plus he’s so easy going. There are different reasons why I like different people. Kanye for example is real quick in the studio, you get to spark stuff real fast. I would love to work with the old skool geniuses more.
T3's 'Olio' mixtape is out now. The first official release of the Jay Dee produced Slum Village 'Fan-tas-tic Vol 1' is out now on Scenario. You've probably missed the UK dates for now...
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© ukhh.com 2006
T3 Interview
Tell us about the new album…
It’s up to his ma if they get released or not. Maybe. I know a couple of people who been tryna buy beats, a lot of people to be honest. We sold beats before, but now it’s crazy!
Who else have you enjoyed working with?
We have a bunch of shows in the US, then there’s the European tour in July. We’re also putting together the Slum Village movie, which is basically about our life. It’s still in the small stages, but it should be out in two years time. It’s always been an idea of ours, but we didn’t have a story before but now we’ve got one, so we’re putting the pieces together. It’s gonna be part documentary and part movie. We’re also doing our own individual things, our mix tapes, and I’m doing a lot more production. I’ve always produced but I’m concentrating on it a lot more now.
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