''Evolution'' is the seventh studio album by American hip hop trio

Slum Village Slum Village is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. The group was formerly composed of the rappers Baatin (1974–2009), T3, and rapper / producer J Dilla (1974–2006). J Dilla left in 2001 to pursue a solo career with MCA Record ...

. It was released on June 25, 2013, via Ne'Astra Music and Traffic Entertainment Group. Recording sessions took place at RJ Rice Studios in

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Downtown Detroit, Detroit. As of the 2020 Uni ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

was handled by Young RJ, Focus..., Earlly Macmillion and T3. It features

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s from

Big Pooh Thomas Louis Jones III (born February 12, 1980), better known by his stage name Big Pooh (or Rapper Big Pooh), is an American rapper, who, along with fellow rap artist Phonte, is a member of the acclaimed North Carolina hip hop group Little Brot ...

, Focus..., Vice Verse, Blu, Earlly Macmillion,

Havoc havoc, Havoc, Havocs, Havok, or Havock may also refer to: People with the name * Havoc (musician) (born 1974), American rapper and record producer * Johnny Devine (born 1974), Canadian professional wrestler who uses the ring name Havok * Jimmy H ...

, J. Ivy, Joe Scudda, Joteka and

DJ Jazzy Jeff Jeffrey Allen Townes (born January 22, 1965), known professionally as DJ Jazzy Jeff (or simply Jazz), is an American DJ and producer. He was one half of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, along with Will Smith. He is credited, ...

Critical reception

''Evolution'' was met with average reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

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rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 60, based on four reviews. Kevin Jones of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' stated: "while not every track bangs, the three managed to create a fairly strong record". Steve Juon of RapReviews wrote: "''Evolution'' may not be a cutting edge advancement of hip-hop, but it's no embarrassment to

Baatin Slum Village is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. The group was formerly composed of the rappers Baatin (1974–2009), T3, and rapper / producer J Dilla (1974–2006). J Dilla left in 2001 to pursue a solo career with MCA Record ...

and Dilla's legacy either. It's a solid album you wouldn't be ashamed to pledge a few dollars toward for a copy". In his mixed review for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', Mike Madden claimed: "Slum Village has little to say lyrically".

Track listing

Personnel

*R.L. "T3" Altman III – vocals, producer (track 4) *John "

Illa J John Derek Yancey (born October 13, 1986), better known by his stage name Illa J, is an American rapper, singer, record producer and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan who has released two albums on Delicious Vinyl Records. He is the younger bro ...

" Yancey – vocals *Ralph J. "Young RJ" Rice Jr. – producer & mixing (tracks: 1–5, 7–9, 11, 12) *Kejuan "

" Muchita – featured artist (track 1) *Kameron Corvet – backing vocals (tracks: 1, 6, 10, 12) *Larry Tucker – drum fills (track 1) *Thomas Louis "

" Jones III – featured artist (tracks: 2, 12) *Jeffrey A. "

" Townes – featured artist (track 2) *Bernard " Focus..." Edwards Jr. – keyboards (tracks: 2, 3, 11), backing vocals (track 3), featured artist (tracks: 7, 9), producer & mixing (tracks: 6, 10) *Johnson " Blu" Barnes III – featured artist (track 3) *Earl Patrick "Earlly Macmillion" Taylor – featured artist & producer (track 5) *Lewis Andrew "Drey Skonie" Jackson Jr. – backing vocals (track 5) *Kevin "Vice Verse" Perkins – featured artist (tracks: 8, 10) *James " J. Ivy" Richardson II – featured artist (track 8) *Ken – guitar (track 9) *Jyotika "Joteka" Simmons – featured artist (track 11) *Joseph "Joe Scudda" Griffen – featured artist (track 12)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2013 albums Slum Village albums Albums produced by Focus...