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Lauryn Hill is arguably one of the most influential hip hop artists of all time. She made a huge impact as one third of the Fugees and inspired millions with the release of her debut solo project. Continue Reading

By Jeremiah Martinez

A few days ago I had the opportunity to have a conversation with T3 of Slum Village about the new LP Villa Manifest. I was also able to talk with him about life after Baatin and Dilla, and hip hop in general. Throughout the conversation I had to remind myself that this was supposed to be professional and that I shouldn’t be star struck! It was difficult to say the least. Slum Village plays a huge role in me being the person I am today and I was honored to have T3 on the other end of the line.  When all is said and done, most successful hip hop artists owe a lot of respect for what T3, J. Dilla, Baatin, and Elzhi have done to open the doors for them. Without Slum Village where would we be today? T3, as the last founding member of Slum Village has a lot to say and when he talks, heads should listen.

HHLO: It’s coming up on a year since Baatin passed away, how has this last year been for you being the last remaining founding member of Slum Village?

T3: You know its tough man; I really wanted Baatin to see this last album to come to fruition. You know, it’s tough, it’s really tough for me right now, but you know, I think he’d be happy with the situation, with how the music came along, and I just feel blessed that we was able to get these records done, and being able to sit in the studio [with Baatin] and get this album done man, so that’s how I try to look at everything right now.

HHLO: I can imagine it is kind of bittersweet, with the new album dropping shortly, what does it actually feel like to drop Villa Manifesto without Dilla and Baatin there to celebrate this new chapter in the Slum Village legacy?

T3: I mean it’s definitely tough, it’s definitely tough man, but I feel like I’m doing what they would definitely want me to do. You know I feel blessed that I am able to get it done, you know this album started with a conversation I had with Dilla before he passed about us four doing a reunion album and after he passed, we didn’t get a chance to do it. I felt like I didn’t want to do an album without Baatin. What I did basically, I went and got Baatin and Elzhi and went into the studio, and then eventually grabbed Illa J and then we just put the album together, and that’s how the whole thing kind of came together. Then after Baatin passed, it turns into a memorial/reunion album, now me and Young R.J. have to change the whole spectrum on how we doing this album, now we got to make sure we touch on some topics and you know, we just gotta change it up a little bit. Like I said to people, this could possibly be the final chapter for Slum because it’s just; I personally don’t know where to take it from here with them not being here, with both of them not being here, you know what I’m saying. We’ll see if the response is overwhelming then maybe, but right now that’s not the goal.

HHLO: As a longtime Slum Village fan I would understand if it’s time to move on and do other stuff, but I do know that heads are always going to anticipate another Slum Village album.

T3: Right, Right, but you just tell me, what would that be? What would that be? You know what I’m saying? [Laughs]

HHLO: Right, And that’s why I say, I understand if it is time to move on, I mean you guys have made your mark, you are legends already. I do follow you on Twitter, (T3 laughs), and I have to ask, what went down on July 1^st? (T3 commented on twitter “Oh yeah. One more thing…this is the last Slum Village album” causing an internet storm of rumors and speculation.)

T3: So you saw all the trouble? [Laughs] What I’m gonna say about that man is that, you know a lot of cats right now are coming out the woodworks around this album. As you can see, I didn’t respond to any of that because I don’t take any of that serious. Let me say this, when Dilla left the group, if the internet was around when Dilla left Slum Village then, the same thing would have happened. You know what I’m saying, I’m used to people coming out the woodwork. Then we brought Elzhi, it was the same thing. They didn’t like the fact that Elzhi was in Slum Village, so we dealt with the drama of that, to the point where, I remember the situation, [laughs], I ain’t  even gonna front, [laughs] it was bad, [laughs] lets just say that, [laughs], It was bad. As far as Elzhi being a part of the group, far as I know, I talked to El we still cool, everything cool, we’re still doing shows together. Elzhi still supporting the record, I mean, there’s nothing to talk about. And that’s how I feel about that whole situation; you know what I’m saying.

HHLO: Cool, cool, enough said. I saw that you guys have a lot of great guests on the album, you’ve got ?uestlove, Phife, De La, just to name a few, who are some of your favorite artists to work with?

T3: My favorite artists to work with of all time would have to when I worked with ?uest and D’Angelo at the same time. Those are my favorite artists I worked with so far. Just the magic that they make together is just (HHLO: Amazing) [laughs] you know what I’m saying.

HHLO: Do you have any artists, producers or emcees; you would be interested in doing colabs with in the future?

T3: Well, there’s some. I wanna do something with Drake, he has given us shoutouts. I saw that he performed one of our classic tracks “Climax” as part of his show. (Drake did do a cover of “Climax” on 6.22.10 in West Hollywood at a Microsoft Bing event) So I want to do some stuff with Drake. I would want to work with Andre 3000, someone like that, you know, some cutting edge cats that will challenge me and come up with some great music. That’s who I would love to work with.

HHLO: Is it harder to create a track with a guest or actually sitting in the booth and recording it?

T3: It can be hard and it can be easy, it just depends on the vibe in the studio. I would rather sit in the studio with a guy than have him send me a verse. Just cause you want to build on the magic. It don’t always happen in these days and times because everything is so digital.

HHLO: Speaking on laying verses, what was your role or Baatin’s role or even your take on Dilla’s decision to rap on records?

T3: Dilla always rapped! That’s what people don’t understand, he rapped Vol. 1 and all the way through, so he’s always been rapping. People didn’t always know that Dilla was a rapper, you know, and when I met Dilla, from day one, Dilla always rapped. I remember he had this song that he made in the early ‘90’s, way before we ever got on or whatever, in the song he did this stutter rap and it was so fresh, I mean, I never heard someone use a stutter style before, I mean stuttering through the whole record! Dilla was just an innovative dude so I always saw Dilla as a rapper. A lot of cats didn’t really catch on to Dilla as a rapper till maybe like, Like Water for Chocolate to really know that Dilla was an emcee and he could really, you know, rap. So, I mean, I’ve always been a fan of Dilla as a rapper.

HHLO: What was the most complete Slum Village album is there one that you hold closer to your heart than any of the other ones?

T3: Of course it’s gonna be (Fan-Tas-Tic) Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 because that’s the first album that got us started you know what I’m saying, so it’s definitely gonna be that. I feel like we had highlights on all our albums. For different reasons, [laughs] I can break down each album. The highlight for Vol. 1 and Vol.2, is like, that’s the coming out party, that’s the first time we were introduced to the public. Not only that, we got a lot of love. We had all these cats come on to the album for little to no money; they just wanted to work with Slum Village because they were fans of Slum Village. You can’t be mad at that at all. It was a great situation. Then Trinity (Past, Present and Future) was probably the most stressful album, because that’s when I became the leader of Slum Village and all the stress was on me to do everything and make sure everything was done. From picking the producers, to bringing Elzhi in, you know what I’m saying, it was a lot of pressure on me. That album made me grow up as a man and it took a lot, it took a lot! You know we found a lot of producers that people never heard of, that’s when we first used Young R.J. on production, that’s when we used Black Milk for the first time, Waajeed for the first time, Karriem Riggins, all these producers that people never heard of before that we did a whole album with. (HHLO: And now look at them all shine!) Yeah! Everybody doing their thing man, [laughs] and even Dwele, we (Slum Village) really showcased a lot of talent, and that was our biggest selling album of all time.

HHLO: With the amount of Detroit cats heading west to Cali, what’s going on in the “D” as far as the hip hop scene in concerned?

T3: We still got a lot cats in the “D”, we still got Black Milk, Guilty (Simpson), Big Tone, Phat Kat’s still in Detroit, Magestik Legend still in Detroit. We still got a lot of cats here. But the “D’ is weird because we only have events. We don’t have a set place to go every week. There is enough of us where we can throw an event once or twice a month, somebody gonna throw something, and we probably all gonna show up there but we only have events, you know what I’m saying.

HHLO: A lot has changed since you guys dropped Fan-Tas-Tic Vol.1 & Vol.2, what’s your take on hip hop in general today?

T3: A lot of things changed, I feel like they got opportunity, like a lot of opportunity! They’ve got the internet, if their stuff is really fresh and somebody see and the people will comment on it then they will know. With us, we had to go word of mouth, we had to go to this guy here and that guy there and, you know, it would take a lot of time for records to blow. But, you know, that’s a gift and a curse because you can be shot down before you even start on the internet too. It just really depends, man. I feel like there is opportunity for cats and nobody has an excuse, I mean some cats are getting signed because of their YouTube clips.

HHLO: What album are you feeling right now?

T3: I like the new Roots album, that’s one of my favorites right now. But I am mostly a digger, crates and stuff like that, listening to rare records trying to come up with more music.

HHLO: I see you have a solo project coming out around Halloween.

T3: Yep, Halloween, my album is coming. Also Elzhi is working on his solo album; I don’t know when it’s coming out but sometime. Young R.J. is working on a project with this guy named Vice Verse, also we working on Illa J’s project too. So, you know we got a lot music coming man, we’re gonna keep the music going.

HHLO: Besides the album due out on Halloween, what can we expect from just T3 in the future?

T3: Me, I’m producing. I’m back on the beats. I’m writing songs for people. I’m doing my solo, I’m just gonna broaden my horizon. Stuff that I already did, I’ve been producing. I produced on a lot of Slum Village albums. I co-produced “Runnin” with Dilla; I did a lot of stuff people didn’t know about. I wrote a lot of hooks and stuff like that. So this will get me more into that and bill me more as a producer/emcee, you know I am gonna rap sometimes but this is more about me being a producer and making these albums. (HHLO: Really experimenting with some stuff?) Yeah, I got this one project I wanna work with this girl and she wants to do this like bluesy sound and I’m trying to figure out how to flip that right now. It’s gonna be crazy, I’m gonna see how this works out. I don’t think rappers really mess with Blues like that and Blues is a different kind of soul music. It’s still soul music, [laughs] it’s a little more gut wrenching.

HHLO: The album your going to drop on Halloween, is that more of an experiment for you, or is it something you have been planning for a while now?

T3: I was supposed to drop that album last year. It’s based on scary movies; basically what I did was created a theme of scary movies, by like chopping scary movie samples up, to concepts about different things like horror concepts. I am just trying to do a fun album, it’s not a serious album, it’s just like a concept fun album because I think a hip hop gets too serious sometimes, and I just want to have fun with the music.

                There you have it! If you haven’t already, make sure you go cop the new Slum Village LP Villa Manifesto from whatever outlet you get your music from. This is the first album where all four members appear together, and is a piece of hip hop history that will be talked about for a long time to come. I look forward to T3’s new projects, and as a fan, I understand that there just may not be anything left for Slum Village to accomplish, what else do they have to prove? I am glad T3 was able to set the record straight and able to tell us where he stands on the future of Slum Village.

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The beautiful and talented Sonyae Elise, is gracing the pages of HHLO.net this month with her hot new track, “We Heard (Re Tweet).” This woman is definitely on track for becoming a force to be reckoned with in the game. Ms. Elise shares with us some of her influences, about the mixtape she just dropped and what her soon to be new fans can expect from her!

We appreciate the time Sonyae, let’s get right to it. Who is “Lady Rebel”? Continue Reading

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