Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit)

Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit)
Studio album by Slum Village
Released	June 29, 2004
Genre	Hip hop
Length	45:43
Label	Capitol
Producer	B.R. Gunna, Black Milk, J Dilla, Kanye West, T3, Young RJ
Slum Village chronology
Trinity (Past, Present and Future) (2002) Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit) (2004) Slum Village (2005)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Prefix Magazine	[2]
RapReviews.com	(7.5/10)[3]
Rolling Stone	[4]

Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit) is the fourth studio album by American hip hop group Slum Village, released on June 29, 2004. It was released shortly after Baatin left the group, leaving only T3 and Elzhi.

Overview

After Baatin's departure from Slum Village, there was a lot of pressure upon the group to deliver a solid follow up to their previous album, Trinity. The first single from Detroit Deli was "Selfish", produced by and featuring Kanye West, with John Legend providing vocals during the chorus. The song was a moderate hit and the group's highest charting single, partly as a result of Kanye West's mainstream popularity. The album received a fairly solid reception, but further promotion from Capitol Records stopped short of a second single or video. Some of their longtime fans viewed the collaboration with West as a ploy for mainstream attention. The group would acknowledge this somewhat, on their following album, simply titled Slum Village, in 2005.

The song "Reunion", was originally supposed to feature all four members of Slum Village, but Baatin was absent from the final version.

A lot of people think that's a Dilla track, but it was produced by Black Milk, Dilla is just rapping on it. Basically what happened was me and [producer] Young RJ went over Dilla's house, playing joints for him off the album 'cause we wanted to work with him on it. We played a couple joints and he picked to rap on that one. Originally it was supposed to be me, him, Baatin and Elzhi, but Baatin at the time wasn't feeling doing anything Slum Village.

Me and Elzhi already had our verses, then Dilla put his "rep mo' D than 12 Eminems" verse down, then Elzhi said, "You know what, I'ma keep it real. I'ma tell people what really happened with Baatin cause they lookin at us like, 'T3 kicked Baatin out.'" I didn't kick him out, he left the group. Elzhi wanted to tell the truth and he did it. That's when he put his "unlawful demons" verse down. He called Baatin up maybe like a week after he did it and was still asking him to get on the song, but Baatin never did.

It was supposed to be four of us but Baatin was going through his whole struggle. I'm kind of mad that we never got to make a reunion LP, 'cause me and Dilla always talked about doing it. It's kind of upsetting that we didn’t get to close the Slum Village chapter like that. Now it's at a point like, where do we go from here?

— T3 ^[5]

Three of the guests on this album have died in the time since its release; MC Breed, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and J Dilla. On July 31, 2009, Baatin died.

Track listing

Album singles

References