Slum Village- Villa Manifesto (album review/ preview)

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The new Slum Village album is officially out! Yes!!! This next to the new Dwele album has to be the most anticipated album for me being big fans of both and Detroit music period.

This album is very special to me given the loss of the 2 original member of Slum Village. J Dilla passed in February 2006 from his long fought battle with Lupus. Baatin passed just last year to a still unknown death because the family didn’t want to release it but we do know that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and struggled with emotional problems. I’d hate to believe that he took his own life because the day of his death he was schedule to perform with Elzhi and T3 in Canada for the Villa Manifesto album but wasn’t able to cross the border due to past legal problems.

Listening to this album I got a ton of mixed emotions. It’s super dope to hear an album after all these years with all the members together but sad to know that 2 of the greats from the group are really gone. Baatin managed to finish majority of the album prior to his death and let me tell yall he gets it in on this one! I think this is one of his greatest pieces of work by far because he spits and sings like I didn’t even know he could. The video below is one of my favorite tracks that Baatin spits/sings called Actin Normal directed by Dwele that didn’t even make this album! Dope video by the way Dwele.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFFkm97jrb0

My only complaint is that he didn’t spit in his second language like he did on prior albums. Though I didn’t understand a word he was saying it sounded dope as all hell! Aside from Baatin’s performance on the album T3 and Elzhi also represent as well on the lyrical tip showing everyone in the states what Detroit music is all about and in my mind the dopest music right now all around, and I was born and raised in Cali and I’m saying this. All around the album is a good piece of work but I expected much more from Slum being that this album is so monumental along with the time it took to put it out. I wanted Fantastic Vol.3 on steroids!

There’s only 12 tracks on the album out of the possible 20 they could had which they’re past masterpiece Fantastic Vol 2 did. And for those that see 13 tracks in the track listing I didnt #8 Dont fight the Feeling featuring Dwele because its an instrumental with Dwele singing a repetitive hook! So much for a super Dwele heater feature like Tainted : o ( Hell there were 6 tracks on the “Villa Manifesto LP” album they put out last year in December (online only) that was supposedly suppose to give us a taste of the real album to come yet none of the tracks on the LP or on the official album. Bad marketing in my mind. I’d of been more satisfied waiting for one solid/ full album. My other complaint about this album is the lack of J Dilla’s presence. He has soooooo many tracks out there that haven’t been heard that only Slum would have access to as well as dope unreleased vocals that weren’t used. I wanted to give this album 5 cartons so bad but can’t with the above said.

01 Bare Witness Ft. Babu
02 Lock It Down
03 Scheming Ft J. Dilla, Posdnuos, and Phife
04 Earl Flinn
05 Faster
06 2000 Beyond Ft. J Dilla
07 Dance Ft. Ab
08 Dont Fight The Feeling Ft. Dwele
09 Um Um Ft. Keys
10 The Set Up
11 The Reunion Pt. 2
12 Where Do We Go From Here Ft. Little Brother
13 We’ll Show You Ft. A

3 1/2 out of 5 Cartons

I left yall with a few of my favorite tracks to listen to from the album as well as the “Actin Normal” single to download that didn’t make the album. R.I.P. J Dilla and Baatin!

Download: Slum Village- Actin Normal (269 downloads)

#1 Bare Witness featuring Babu

[audio: 01-slum_village-bare_witness_ft._babu-ftd.mp3]

#7 Dance featuring Ab

[audio: 07-slum_village-dance_ft._ab-ftd.mp3]

#9 Um Um featuring Keys

[audio: 09-slum_village-um_um_ft._keys-ftd.mp3]

#11 The Reunion Pt. 2

[audio: 11-slum_village-the_reunion_pt._2-ftd.mp3]

– Black Milk