After being heralded as the next coming of Tribe, getting slagged for non-metaphorical lyrics, and surviving the demise of A&M's urban department|, the artists formerly known as Brothers of the Slum have a new release date, a new label, some heavyweight guest appearances, and some fighting words for those accusing them of being heavyweight beatminers with lightweight lyrics.

Signing with A&M in 1997, Slum Village first gained notoriety when producer and emcee Jay Dee became a member of the Ummah production team in 1994 after meeting Q-Tip backstage at Lollapalooza. In 1997 they released "Fantastic Volume I" in Japan only. The record, a certifiable piece of hip-hop esoterica, was flavored with Jay Dee's bass-heavy production and the spontaneous rhymes of Jay, Baatin and T-3.

Their latest record "Fantastic Volume II" is scheduled for summer release. The single "Girl Shit b/w Undetermined" will drop shortly. While no video director has been named, the group is hoping for a double video. "We just working on the concept," T-3 says. "We got to find the right director"

The record originally had a March release date on A&M Records but got caught up in the Universal/Seagram merger. While some of the A&M urban roster were dropped, Slum Village have caught on with Interscope Records.

According to SV Manager Tim Maynor, the group was never concerned. "We weren't worried," he says from the group's homebase, the RJ Rice Studio outside of Detroit. "We had three or four labels waiting to sign us."

While Maynor declines to possible suitors, he is more than happy to divulge the names of artists featured on "Fantastic" the sequel: Pete Rock, Kurupt, D'Angelo, Busta Rhymes, Jazzy Jeff and Q-Tip.

Slum is also happy to be associated with the new Native Tongues-esque movement alongside The Roots, Common, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. "I guess it's happening [already]," T-3 says of the movement. "I'm cool with Common, I'm cool with the Roots, I'm cool with Tribe. We are already a part of it. We build together, we just real cool, so I guess you could say we're a part of it." Jay Dee also produced a pair of tracks on The Roots "Things Fall Apart."

Unlike the aforementioned acts, the group can sound misogynistic at times. The lyrics reflected the group's state of mind at the time they were recorded, T-3 counters. "We have songs where we talk about love as well."

They have also taken heat for a lack of pure punchline-style rhyming. "Some people will dog the group because don't say a lot of metaphors," he says in his usual animated/exasperated style. "We make those type of raps [as well]."

There are a lot of [different] sounds, we just say what we feel," T-3 explains. "It's kind of like free-flowing we just say what we feel. We made an album that you can feel off of pure emotion." -- Adam Matthews