Slum Village: Village voice

Slum Village expects big things from new album, D12 tour

By Newt Briggs

No one could blame T3, the last original member of Detroit's Slum Village, for being a little mad at the world. After all, the brother's been in the rap game for more than a decade, and during that time, he's put out two of the most bootlegged records in the history of underground hip hop--Fantastic, Vol.1 and Vol. 2. He's also worked with a list of collaborators that reads like a who's who of hip hop and R&B: Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock, Q-Tip and D'Angelo, to name a few. Yet for some reason, the two biggest rappers in Detroit are white boys named Marshall and Bob, and even those clowns who spray each other with red soda draw bigger crowds than Slum Village.

"It don't really bother me that much at all," T3 says. "I've known Eminem ever since he was an up-and-comer, so I'm not surprised by his success. And, you know, Kid Rock is Kid Rock. That's not even rap. But that's the whole thing about the D--everybody's kind of got their own sound. Eminem doesn't sound like Insane Clown Posse or Royce Da 5'9" or Obie Trice. It's cool like that."

Raised in Detroit's Conant Gardens area ("a semi-rough neighborhood," T3 says), Slum Village grew up on a steady diet of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and P-Funk power. In fact, there were so many Motown samples on Fantastic, Vol. 1 that no record company could afford to release the album. And even though it became one of the most sought-after tapes in hip hop's inner circles, Slum Village couldn't catch a break with a label.

"We done been on about five labels," says T3. "We were on A&M, but they let us go after they closed our urban department. Then we moved on to Interscope for a minute and then on to J-Core. No, from Interscope we went to Goodvibe, and then we went to J-Core. And now we're with Capitol."

Perhaps the only reason T3 survived the constant shuffle was hip hop indie Barak Records, which released anything and everything Slum Village turned out. For that reason, T3 says, the group "was never hungry or broke or anything like that." With Capitol, though, T3 expects to finally land the superstar dollars. Stripped down to two MCs (T3 and Elzhi), Slum Village released its third LP, Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit), this week, and based on the early response to the record's premiere single--the Kanye West joint, "Selfish"--Slum Village's prospects are looking better every day.

"We've been offered shoes, jewelry, all types of things," T3 says. "That's how you know you're popular, when you start getting endorsement offers. When your phone's not ringing, then you know you've still got some work to do."

At least part of the credit for Slum Village's recent success goes to Eminem's controversial rap collective, D12, which brought the Detroit duo on the road for its current tour. Thus far, it's been an unusual experience for T3--who's grown accustomed to playing for a hipper, more urbane crowd--but he's happy to spread the word outside of Slum Village's core audience.

"When I look out in the D12 audience, I see little kids," he says. "I don't understand it. Like, the show we're doing tonight in Seattle is an all-ages show. Now, Slum Village don't do a lot of all-ages shows. I guess we're more accustomed to playing to a college audience. I'm not used to rapping to 10-year-olds. Hopefully, they'll all buy some records or something."