Slum Village, established in Detroit in 1993, is a collective of hip hop artists dedicated to withstanding the story behind the group’s original era of influential hip hop legends. Slum Village first originated as the dynamic trio of hip hop artists and producers, J Dilla, Baatin, and T3. Slum Village and their iconic popularity became a critically acclaimed evolution, perusing through generations of new members and continues today as a timeless tribute to the group and their legacy. The current members of Slum Village include, the only living member of the original group, T3 and Grammy nominated producer Young RJ. Together, the hip hop duo has produced an exciting new tour, featuring a highly anticipated set in Denver, September 16th at Your Moms House venue and nightclub. Their latest tour and production under the Slum Village label is an exciting showcase of their continuing efforts to invigorate the hip hop music scene.

Anticipating their upcoming tour, Young RJ described in an interview, the most recent chapters for Slum Village and the incredible timeline of their success. Beginning in the 90’s hip hop scene, Slum Village has maintained a consistent production style by incorporating the original groups designs methods, within the recent era of hip hop sound-culture. Young RJ said, The consistent factor [in Slum Village] is the founding member T3. Dilla taught us, me and T3, the formula for making these songs. As far as production, T3 has been doing the hooks since the beginning, so a lot of the ideas were T3 and Dillas. So having that, the consistent founding members, is what keeps the glue, as well me and T still going into studio and working like we used to—you're always going to have that consistent sound, because the people who's been at the helm of it since 2001, are still present.”

The Slum Village formula is a stylized method behind the groups classic sound design and core brand. Young RJ explained, “It’s how we choose to take whatever samples we want to use, how we go to look and shop for records—you know, what we're looking for on the back of the cover or certain labels that are consistent and put out dope music—it’s the approach of how we choose to swing our music and where we choose to pull inspiration from for our hooks, and things of that nature, and what we choose to sample drum wise, all those things are what goes into the formula.” The combined production efforts of T3 and Young RJ became a catalyst for the groups long lasting success. Young RJ explaining their transformation as the latest members of Slum Village, describing the pressure of picking up production after J Dilla left in 2001 to peruse his solo career. Young RJ said “In 2010 we started working on Dirty Slums. And after that, it just kind of got easy. We found our groove going into Dirty Slums volume 2 and we got it at a good point now.”

In the past decade, Slum Village has released a variety of new albums including popular albums Evolution released in 2013 and Yes!, released in 2015. T3 and Young RJ created an elite epilogue of Slum Village—their dedication and success is a constant tribute to the origins of the group and a homage to their classic production techniques. Young RJ said, “Just because something doesn't go necessarily the way that you wanted to, there's always another option. We've maintained and have been able to push forward and keep the brand even bigger now than it was 10 years ago. We just put our heart into music, making sure that we like it, and we dig it first. And that's how It started back in early days, was them just making music that they wanted to make, and that they felt like they wanted to listen to. And we keep that same thing today, we want the fans to get a little bit of our history, and learn what records Dilla made, that they didn't know about. Baatin was influential in what he was doing, T3 as well. We just want to give our audience a history lesson and want them to have a great time.”

Slum Village begins their next tour dates as the debut run in a number of upcoming tours. Young RJ described the upcoming shows as an enthusiastic revival from the old Slum Village. He explained the vision of the tour, and said, “We are putting together a show that people haven’t seen from Slum Village. People that may have come to older shows and may not have heard some of the songs that they wanted to hear, this time we are switching it up. We are preparing to do an even bigger show— just a great show with great energy, hearing all the classic songs that you would want to hear. We may do a couple of Dilla songs in there to pay tribute to him and Baatin. And I think, that's the main thing. We always want to keep founding members present and bringing them to the new audience.”

In addition to their upcoming tours, Slum Village, T3 and Young RJ anticipate a lineup of album releases, coming out this year. Young RJ’s newest album, World Tour will be released on September 23, featuring Pete rock, Pino Palladino, Slum Village, Abstract Mindstate, Abstract Orchestra, Blu, Mega Ran and Eric Roberson. He said, “T3 is working on a couple of different albums. He has one album coming out with Jermaine Holmes, as well as working on a solo album. Me personally, I have an 80s album, that’s a mix of 80s punk rock and other genres, and then have another album with Mega Ran, as a follow up for 2 Hands Up. I have a project I'm finishing up with Kanye West group, Abstract Mindstate that's coming out. And then I have a hip hop album coming out. And Slum is working on a whole new album as well.”

Slum Village will be releasing featured singles from their new album towards the close of this year and scheduled to release the full album towards the end of 2023. Their tour dates, including their upcoming show in Denver can be found in the links below.

Tickets: yourmomshousedenver.com/e/slum-village/tickets

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slumvillageofficial

Instagram: @officialslumvillage

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3liSTTk