Fantastic, Vol. 2

Infobox Album
Name = Fantastic, Vol. 2
Type = Album
Artist = Slum Village


Released = June 13, 2000
Recorded = N/A
Genre = Hip-Hop
Length = 75:07
Label = GoodVibe Recordings
Producer = Jay Dee, ?uestlove, Pete Rock, D'Angelo
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:oq6fmpbh9f7o/ link]
Last album = "Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1)"
(1997) (Bootleg)
(2005) (Official Release)
This album = "Fantastic, Vol. 2"
(2000)
Next album = "Best Kept Secret"
(2000)

"Fantastic, Vol. 2" (also referred to as "Fantastic Volume II") is the second album from Detroit's Slum Village, released in 2000. During the time of its release the group was still composed of its earliest members T3, Baatin and Jay Dee.

Overview

The album was initially completed in 1998 for A&M Records shortly before the label became obsolete, leaving Slum Village in limbo for over a year. During this period, however, the group's producer Jay Dee greatly increased his profile through work with artists such as Common, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu and A Tribe Called Quest. At the same time tremendous acclaim from notables such as ?uestlove of The Roots and Q-Tip built up anticipation for the long-delayed LP.

Slum Village eventually found an outlet with Goodvibe Recordings & Barak Records, and released "Fantastic, Vol. 2" in summer 2000. Although sales were slow (due to heavy bootlegging) the group nevertheless had a huge impact on the underground circuit and were proclaimed torchbearers for the departing A Tribe Called Quest.

In particular Jay Dee's much lauded production work, full of subtle grooves and soul claps, was a blueprint for the direction that neo soul would take in the coming years. The album was re-released minus the original version of "Fall-N-Love", which was replaced by the remix due to sample clearance issues, as well as their collaboration with Common, "Thelonius".

Recording quotes

These quotes are taken from The Fader magazine's interview with T3:

On "Players"

cquote|(The sample) don’t say “players,” it say “Claire,” but we used subliminal tactics on that one. Dilla didn’t really even chop it, but by us saying “players” so much you think it says “players.” People don’t know that was a battle song, only niggas in the D know that. We was actually talking ’bout some real niggas. We’re cool today, but it was actually (deceased rapper) Proof’s group (5 Elementz). These niggas had just dropped they CD that Dilla did most of the beats for and they was just acting arrogant, walking around real tough and we got kind of offended by it.

Once we started talking about it, Waajeed (from Platinum Pied Pipers) was like a hype man, like, “Man, they just put their shit out, where’s yours?” We went over to Dilla’s house and it was one a them nights where everything was clickin'. Two weeks later we came with "Vol. 1". They kind of inspired us by being so arrogant, so we made “Players” about them. They found out, I don’t know how…somebody told. [ [http://www.thefader.com/blog/articles/2006/11/18/shine-on-and-on-extended-sentimental-remix The FADER - Shine On...and On (Extended Sentimental Remix) ] ]

On "Get Dis Money"

cquote|We would always hear stuff in progress, like for “Get Dis Money” there’s a lot of little intricate stuff in the background of that song that didn’t happen until the last two weeks before the album had to be turned in. A little singing here, a little sound effects and all that. The drum programming on “Get Dis Money” is a little off. Dilla didn’t like to use a metronome or whatever, so some would be slightly off beat, but on purpose. It’s just the way his ear was, crazy.

What’s funny about “Get Dis Money” is that Baatin wrote three verses before we liked one, me and Dilla was being real hard on his rhyme. If you listen to "Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2", Baatin don’t talk about the topic at all. It ended up being like we was doing it on purpose, but originally it was not on purpose. Dilla was more upset than anybody about staying on topic. I think our fans have grown to love that about Baatin, but at the time it was frustrating. He would just talk about anything. The song is about getting money and the pursuit of it, a real simple concept, and Baatin would just start talking bout his family and then go over here and over there…you ain’t know where he’s going! Even with three verses, Dilla still took out a part of his rhyme on the final version, Dilla kind of faded him out on the end of that song. [ [http://www.thefader.com/blog/articles/2006/11/18/shine-on-and-on-extended-sentimental-remix The FADER - Shine On...and On (Extended Sentimental Remix) ] ]

On "Hold Tight"

cquote|I think Q-Tip wasn’t feelin' his whole situation at the time and when we went in to make that song that was waaaay unexpected. We went to New York and we was just going get a verse from him and he just surprised everyone with that. And you know man, that was a gift and a curse, more of a curse than a gift, ’cause niggas kept comparing us to Tribe Called Quest. And although we were affiliated and those were our people, our lyrical content was nothing like theirs. We always had a street edge, a metaphysical edge and the nigga-in-between edge.

It was nothing like them, but when New York cats heard that, some frowned up real tough on us, and that kind of hurt us in a sense. If they never compared us to Tribe, I felt like things would have been a little smoother. And it was at that time, once Dilla put his heart and soul into Vol. 2, that’s when he decided he couldn’t deal with the whole Slum Village thing no more because he felt like he had too many demons around it. [ [http://www.thefader.com/blog/articles/2006/11/18/shine-on-and-on-extended-sentimental-remix The FADER - Shine On...and On (Extended Sentimental Remix) ] ]

Reaction and Aftermath

The album received a great deal of praise. The Phoenix New Times, for example, commented that "(Jay Dee's) production style has been subtly influencing better-recognized producers for years" and even went as far as to claim that "Slum Village is going to single-handedly save rap music" [http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://media.newtimes.com/22734.0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2000-07-27/music/recordings.html&h=114&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=147&tbnid=uLTSKz7S3w2IQM:&tbnh=65&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dslum%2Bvillage%2Bfantastic%26start%3D140%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official_s%26sa%3DN] . The group themselves have since acknowledged the impact this record had, and while they benefited greatly from it, it has also overshadowed their later, though more commercially successful work.

Track listing

All tracks are solely produced by Jay Dee, except for "Tell Me", which is co-produced by Jay Dee and D'Angelo, as well as "Once Upon A Time", which is co-produced by Jay Dee and Pete Rock. ?uestlove also claims credit for creating the musical interlude before "Thelonious."
# "Intro" – 1:25
# "Conant Gardens" – 3:04
# "I Don't Know" (Ft. Jazzy Jeff) – 2:25
# "Jealousy" – 4:05
# "Climax (Girl Shit)" – 3:31
# "Hold Tight" (Ft. Q-Tip) – 3:12
# "Tell Me" (Ft. D'Angelo) – 4:37
# "What It's All About" (Ft. Busta Rhymes) – 3:36
# "Forth and Back" (Ft. Kurupt) – 4:26
# "Untitled/Fantastic" – 3:54
# "Fall N Love" - 3:47
# "Get Dis Money" – 3:31
# "Raise It Up" – 4:27
# "Once Upon a Time" (Ft. Pete Rock) – 5:54
# "Players" – 2:26
# "Eyes Up" – 4:22
# "2U 4U" – 3:08
# "CB4" – 3:45
# "Go Ladies" – 4:43
# "Thelonius" (Ft. Common) - 4:29 (Bonus track found on later pressings)

amples Used

Source: Rap Sample FAQ [ [http://the-breaks.com www.the-breaks.com, AKA The (Rap) Sample FAQ ] ]
*"Intro"
**"God Made Me Funky" by The Headhunters (from the 1975 album "Survival of the Fittest")
**"Butter" (vocal snippet) by A Tribe Called Quest (from "The Low End Theory")
*"I Don't Know"
**"Sex Machine" by James Brown (from the 1970 album "Sex Machine")
**"Make It Funky" by James Brown (from the 1972 album "There It Is")
**"My Thang" by James Brown (from the 1974 album "Hell")
*"Jealousy"
**"Are You All The Things" by Bill Evans (from the 1974 album "Intuition")
*"Climax"
**"Space Intro" by Steve Miller Band (from the 1976 album "Fly Like an Eagle")
**"Nite & Day" by Al B Sure! (from the 1988 album "In Effect Mode")
*"Hold Tight"
**"What Makes You Happy" by KC & The Sunshine Band (from the 1975 self-titled album)
*"Forth and Back"
**"I Thought it was You" by Herbie Hancock (from the 1978 album "Sunlight")
**"Funkin 4 Jamaica" by Tom Browne (from the 1979 album "Love Approach")
*"Fall-N-Love"
**"Diana in the Autumn Wind" by Gap Mangione (from the 1969 album "Diana in the Autumn Wind")
*"Get Dis Money"
**"Come Running to Me" by Herbie Hancock (from the 1978 album "Sunlight")
*"Players"
**"Clair" by Singers Unlimited (from the 1974 album "A Capella II")
*"Go Ladies"
**"Holding You, Loving You" by Don Blackman (from the 1982 self-titled album)
**"God Made Me Funky" by Headhunters (from the 1975 album "Survival of the Fittest")
*"Raise It Up"
**"Extra Dry" by Thomas Bangalter

Album singles

Outtakes

*"Once Upon A Time" - originally titled "On A Mission", and showed up on white label before the album's release. This version is also produced by Pete Rock, but without Jay Dee's added touches.
*"Get Dis Money" - A version with an alternative verse from Baatin.
*"The Hustle" (Ft. Busta Rhymes) - white label.
*"Beej N Dem" - One of the many tracks from Slum's demo debut "Fantastic" that was re-recorded for Volume 2, this was the last and most high-end cut of this song that was released.
*"Forth & Back" - The 2nd of 3 cuts for "Forth & Back", another song concept from "Fantastic", this version uses a more radio friendly beat, sampling Tom Browne's "Funkin for Jamaica." The order of verses remains intact, including the feature from Kurupt, except Jay, T3, and Baatin's verses are all older vocal takes with completely different lyrics.

Trivia

*The album's cover was designed by Waajeed (of the group Platinum Pied Pipers)

References