The proceeds of Slum Villages highly anticipated album Villa Manifesto featuring reunited group member Titus “Baatin” Glover will go the deceased rapper’s family.
Glover, aka “Baatin,” 35, was found dead on Saturday (August 1). While police await a toxicology report, AllHipHop.com has confirmed that tragically, the rapper was found dead just yards from a known crack house in Detroit.
Baatin was supposed to be at the Rock The Bells date on August 1 in Toronto, Canada, but was turned away by Canadian immigration officials, due to his prior criminal record. In an exclusive interview with AllHipHop.com, Barak Records’ founder RJ Rice shed some positive news in the aftermath of the death of Baatin.
Rice, of RJ & The Latest Arrival fame, founded Barak Records in 1998 and has since released at least six Slum Village albums in partnership with lifelong friends and associates James “J. Dilla” Yancey, R.L. “T3” Altman III and Baatin.
“We are going to hire an independent CPA to track the sales of Villa Manifesto so that money can get to Baatin’s family and the appropriate parties,” RJ Rice told AllHipHop.com. “It’s not going to be stopped and we are not going to pull a bunch of “I.O.U.s’ as the record label. We are going to start the clock at zero. Mrs. Maureen Yancey [J. Dilla’s mother] raised all three of the group members. Jay Dee was an instrumental figure and founder of Slum Village. We don’t want to see Mrs. Yancey struggling, so we are going to do the same for her. She is having real tough times right now. And we are going to try and develop some investments so that these woman can have some residual income, so we don’t have to go down this path again.”
Rice has worked with each one of the group members since they were teens, helping to manage or guide their careers, even founding Barak Records to release projects for each of the artists or their groups.
Both Slum Village and J. Dilla’s earlier works have been heavily circulated on the Internet, including instrumental productions and mixtapes of J. Dilla’s work in particular, cutting into potential proceeds for the rapper.
"We started this thing 17 years ago. And now that people have died and moved on these people have families and they hope that thing could have taken care of them as well too,” Rice said. “And they dedicated their lives for them to be who they were. Please do not bootleg the upcoming Villa Manifesto album.”
Slum Village had just released a new single “Cloud 9” featuring Marsha Ambrosius from Villa Manifesto album, which features high powered producers like Hi-Tek, Mr. Porter, Madlib, Pete Rock, Young RJ and FOCUS.
“I know that this would be a relief on those two of the founding members that were part of Slum to at least know something is going to happen,” Rice continued. “Who would want to see their mothers in need?”
A full, in-depth feature on Slum Village and the life of Titus “Baatin” Glover will run on AllHipHop.com tomorrow (August 4).
The friends and family of Titus “Baatin” Glover are currently making plans for a memorial service and funeral.
Slum Village’s Villa Manifesto hits stores September 22, 2009 and will be distributed worldwide digitally by IODA.
