Slum Village
Label: Barak
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Slum Village
What happens when a hotly tipped hip-hop group loses nearly everything they had going for them? In the case of Slum Village, you deny everything and do your best to convince the few listeners you’ve managed to hold onto that nothing has changed. The Detroit duo, having weathered the departure of Tribe veteran Jay Dee and the firing of member Baatin for mental health issues, has been putting on a game face. They even swung for the mainstream fences with last year’s Detroit Deli, but Jay took with him that most precious entity for an up-and-coming underground act: an identity. On their latest effort, the guys seem lost. Leaping from the serene “Call Me” to the militaristic “Hear This,” a hazy fog of insincerity creeps into this effort. If these two could get the nerve to open up, even a little bit, there could be a great confessional album there. It’s not like they don’t have a story to tell.
This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2005.