Toronto Urban Music Festival 2009

Slum Village Yeah, it's definitely surprising, but I mean I just always felt that we had songs, we just didn't have the proper push, that's all. You know what I'm sayin' we had romantic funk like that, off of the last album like "Tell Me" and "Climax" and things like that was on that same type of vibe, you know what I'm sayin'. It's just, I think it's all about timing, it's all about hooking up with the right labels and getting the right type of promotion so we can really get out there in the world. Thanks to our label now, we can really push it out there, on a big scale.

WORD Q-Tip on your previous record said that the future of hip hop is now in Slum Village's hands. Was that a lot of pressure?

Slum Village It was a little bit of pressure, you know what I'm sayin'?

That was a lot of love, you know what I mean. We definitely respect those guys for giving us that support because we didn't really have get a lot of it at home. Now, we're getting a lot of love now, but you know we had to earn it. But, that gave us the love right off the bat, like WOW.

WORD I noticed that there are a lot of producers on your latest album. Can you talk about some of these people, that maybe the casual Slum Village fan won't know about?

Slum Village These are all Detroit, mostly 75% of them are all Detroit up and coming.

WORD Really?

Slum Village Well, Kareem Riggins who did our single "Tainted!" is from Detroit, and he did three other songs on the album. You got Waajid who did three songs on the album, you got me and my partner young RJ — I think we did three; You got Black Milk, he did two on there and you got S-Man he did one, and you got Jay Dee, he did three, and only two outside producers were used, Scott Sorch and Hi-Tek. We just wanted to make it more diverse. And I mean, the Detroit sound has still got a bit of a soul element in it. And this album's really base-line heavy if you listen to it.

It's not as melodic as the other album, as Vol. 2, but I think it's a lot more diverse in how things' going. This album is definitely a beat-maker's album, we really took time in choosing them. To where you could really say there's something special about each one of those beats. It's not just normal beats, we got something where the beat changes three times, the beat slows down or the beat is just constantly changing. You know what I'm sayin', we really focused a lot on the production on this album. And some of the lyrics but I'll say this is a producer's album.

WORD How is it that you've been able to maintain a relationship with Jay Dee as he's now focusing on his beats while still having a hand in Slum.

Slum Village Well, Jay Dee's really focusing on his solo album. And he's trying to finish that up. And basically, he left so that he can establish himself as an emcee. He was so well-known as a producer. To let people know about that part of Jay Dee. Somehow when people listen to his album — I heard some tracks — a lot of the stuff he didn't produce!

WORD Really that's a surprise.

Slum Village It's rapped y'all. You know what I'm saying. He wanted to focus on the rhyme. He really wanted to bring that across.

WORD Now you also have a compilation project.

Slum Village The District.

WORD Can you talk about that, what was the idea?

Slum Village That was like a basement album for up and coming rappers. We just wanted to give them a chance to get their stuff out. You know, wanted to make it real dirty and grimy and to keep that kind of element to it, and just bring that rawness across. Because our album is so diverse, it has elements in it but it's not as raw.

WORD And I hear that it is doing well man.

Slum Village A lot of people thought that was our album man! It was supposed to be Slum Village presents the Dirty District, so people thought it was our album. So they jumped all over it for that.

WORD So what's ahead for you guys. What's next?

Slum Village Man, we're working with our band and we're coming with an album called the S-Band. And that's featuring a girl named Tamia, she's on the bonus track on the album. That and Phat Kat coming through, look for that. Those are the two major things we're working on.

WORD Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

Slum Village I would just tell the fans to expect us to keep pushing the limits and keep coming with new innovative music. We will always come with something different and to just, you know, keep an open mind about it because it will keep changing.