You can’t have a conversation about hip-hop in Detroit without special mention to Slum Village; though the group’s line-up may have changed over the years, they are still an essential part of the city’s sound and play a big role in keeping the legacy of J Dilla, a former member, alive and well, in turn benefiting from the super producer’s productions and keeping consistent with the hip hop icon’s beginnings. Now the duo of T3, a founding member, and Young RJ, SV performed a recent string of shows across Australia, with their most intimate being down in The Basement in Sydney this past weekend.
RJ, who has been rocking with SV since a youth, really got a chance to prove himself as a part of the group’s legacy last year when their most recent album, Yes! was released. It still has the same flavour as a classic Slum Village record, smooth and bouncy with impressive lyrical dexterity, so there was nothing to worry about when heading along to check out the show, especially given all the extras the organisers packed into this concert, from neo-soul and reggae to dominant Aussie emcee Briggs.
Holding it down for underground Sydney hip hop was Soul Benefits early on, who continued to show and prove their worth to the scene, fitting in perfectly with the diverse vibe of the night, much like NZ Future Soul outfit Wallace and Jamaican artist Conkarah whose tender vocals and acoustic approach had a calming, warming effect on the room, helped along by covers of Ed Sheeren and Bob Marley.
The room filled up just in time for Briggs, whose powerful presence complemented his forceful delivery, him walking back and forth with a non-stop, no-nonsense showcase of just why he is at the top of Australia’s hip hop scene with tracks like “Sheplife” and “Purgatory (Let It Go)”, the former including a shot at rapper Allday; finishing the line “I live up there, so don’t go there” with a blunt message: “especially if you’re Allday ’cause you’d get punched in your fucking face”.
There was a bit of waiting between sets but Slum Village wasted no time as soon as they hit the small stage, busting into “The Love of Love” and quickly seguing to “Fall in Love”, even rapping Dilla’s opening verse, which the front few rows mirrored word for word.
The Basement doesn’t necessarily have the best sound for hip-hop, but it does have the best atmosphere, giving SV an appropriately underground venue to rock through, and they never fumbled with a set list that blended all incarnations of the group, RJ and T3 hyping up classic tracks like “Players” and “Get Dis Money” right alongside new ones like “Love Is” and “Expressive”.
Slum Village have always been reliable when it comes to crafting slow, smooth grooves and those tracks dominated the set, from “Climax” and “Closer” to “Tainted” and “Selfless”; hell, the only thing that was missing was “Tell Me”.
Though smooth doesn’t quite cut it when closing out a set, and SV wanted to leave us on a big note, with the wildly energetic 8-bit bounce of “Raise It Up” rounding out the main set, and the four-track encore consisting of “Reunion”, “Thelonius”, and “Tear It Down”, all keeping the levels high before the final song, “Call Me”, brought it back to that head-nodding, two-stepping sound.
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