''Trinity (Past, Present and Future)'' is the third studio album by American hip hop group

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 August 13, 2002, via

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. The recording sessions took place at RJ Rice Studios in Farmington Hills, Studio A in

Dearborn Heights Dearborn Heights is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Dearborn Heights is located about west of downtown Detroit. The city shares a small border with Detroit, and is considered a bedroom c ...

, and The Studio in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The album was produced by T3, Waajeed,

J Dilla James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer, composer and rapper. He emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michiga ...

Karriem Riggins Karriem Riggins is an American jazz drummer, record producer, DJ and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. He met Chicago rapper Common and fellow Detroit musician J Dilla both in 1996, and served as an extensive contributor for releases by both ...

, Young RJ, Black Milk, Ess Man,

Hi-Tek Tony Louis Cottrell (born May 5, 1976), better known as Hi-Tek, is an American rapper and music producer from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is best known for his work with Talib Kweli. His father is singer Willie Cottrell of the Willie Cottrell Band, ...

, and

Scott Storch Scott Spencer Storch (born December 16, 1973) is an American record producer and songwriter. Storch began his career as part of Philadelphia-based hip hop band the Roots, which he joined as a keyboardist prior to the release of their 1993 debut a ...

. The album peaked at number 20 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and number 5 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

in the United States. Its

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

Dwele Andwele Gardner (born February 14, 1978), known professionally as Dwele, is an American R&B singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for his guest appearance on Kanye West's 2007 single " Flashing ...

-assisted " Tainted", made it to number 87 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Overview

''Trinity'' marked the group's first shift away from its original lineup, due to

's departure following '' Fantastic, Vol. 2'', to pursue a solo career. Longtime affiliate Elzhi, joined the remaining members; a move which was initially disapproved by hardcore fans, but with time has been accepted, and even praised. Another major change was Slum Village's new recording home,

, which would subsequently cause problems for the group. Although the first single "Tainted" was a respectable success, the album received poor promotion thereafter. With the production element of ''Fantastic, Vol. 2'' receiving the most acclaim the last time around, filling Dilla's shoes was always going to be a hard task for even the most competent trackmaster, but the team assorted for ''Trinity'' (including Dilla himself) didn't stray too far from the feel of the previous album. The beats are, perhaps, less jazzy and subtle but even further left of field on tracks like the aptly titled "Insane", and the first of three Dilla contributions, "One". The group's chemistry, while not as freeflowing and snappy as before, remained intact, and there seemed to be a more concentrated effort by each member to match each other's flows and subjects on the same songs. While on tour to support the album, Baatin began to experience health problems, which led to a diagnosis of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

. He was soon kicked out of the group while still in the hospital, which greatly upset him. The dispute was later resolved, and Baatin reunited with T3 and Elzhi in 2008, before dying of a suspected drug overdose in 2009.

Critical reaction

Fans were split between those welcoming the addition of Elzhi and those who were against it and felt that J Dilla was too instrumental in the group's previously established identity to be replaced. ''Trinity (Past, Present and Future)'' was met with mixed or 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 normalized 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 59, based on twelve reviews. A few critics, however, wrote favorable reviews and gave praise for the group's original song concepts as well as Elzhi's lyrical abilities.

Track listing

;Notes * signifies a co- producer. * signifies an original producer. * signifies a remix producer. *Tracks 23 to 26 are a few seconds of silence. *Track 27 is a bonus track often listed as track 23. * In the liner notes, Black Milk was originally credited under the name Curtis "Nottyhead" Cross.

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2002 albums Slum Village albums Capitol Records albums Albums produced by Hi-Tek Albums produced by J Dilla Albums produced by Black Milk Albums produced by Scott Storch Albums produced by Karriem Riggins