R.I.P. Titus "Baatin" Glover...

First Dilla and now Baatin...damn.

By now I'm sure you've heard about the passing of Baatin from Slum Village. This is really fucked up....after a few years apart, Baatin had just reunited with T-3 and Elzhi. Supposedly he'd been dealing with several issues (reportedly his mental health and drug abuse) over the past few years but had seeked help and was on the road to recovery. They had just finished recording their upcoming album Villa Manifesto (which is due out September 22nd) and were touring together. I had just seen them, about a month ago at the Rock The Bells concert here in Chicago. Afterwards, I remember tellin' Jay about their performance and how I was surprised to see Baatin there and how he didn't look too well.

While I am a huge fan of Slum Village now....I have to admit, that wasn't always the case. It wasn't that I didn't like them, I just had never taken the time to listen to them until I met Tense and Jay in college. At the time I was going through my herbal and alcohol induced ghetto phase...so "hip-hop" music was kind of on the back burner. Jay was relatively new to DJing and he was spinnin' at small parties here and there. One of the places he used to spin at quite a bit was UIC (University of Illinois - Chicago, for those of you outside of Chicago). Several people used to throw dorm room/suite house parties there and more often then not, he was the go to DJ. The crowd was what most people consider "hip-hop" so your chances of hearing "wobbly, wobbly wobbly drop it like it's hot" were non-existent.

Now these were the days before Serato took over, so Jay had like 8-10 heavy ass cases of records that we used to carry to every party. Despite the fact that he had about 1,000 records surrounding him, Jay always managed to find and play Slum Village. It was damn near like a an unspoken rule that some type of SV record had to be played at those parties. It was during that time that I actually listened to and became a fan of Slum Village. Sometimes I look back on that period of time and wonder if it was the people or the music that helped create such an enjoyable and laid back atmosphere. I've come to the conclusion that both played an important part in shaping some of my most memorable college experiences.

Life is like one big ass movie with no "cuts" or "retakes"...a lot of times we write out a script and try to follow it to the tee. More often than not shit happens and the script needs to be altered, and most of the time we just find ourselves ad-libbing. But just like every movie, every person has a soundtrack...a soundtrack full of songs that remind them of a specific places, people and periods in their life. Rest assured Baatin you're music is part of a lot people's soundtrack...to this day every time I here these songs it reminds me of some really good times...


Slum Village - Raise It Up
"Maybe you like me, maybe you don't....I don't give a fuck/ it was probably my crew that made you raise it up" - Baatin



Slum Village - Climax (Girl Shit)
"I know your hubby ain't givin' you no action/ well for one he's too damn masculine/ He need to relax...and take some lessons on givin you climax" - Baatin



Slum Village - Tainted Ft. Dwele
"Well it's the same tainted love in the music business/ people they lose they brain just to get up in this/ let's be a star for day, everything in life is just okay/ people say things they don't really wanna say/ hey, but it's okay cause your a star for the day/ people smile at you when they really wanna frown/ well uh, that's just the way tainted folk get down/ just keep it real and, we'll see, when the situation is tainted love is always free, love is always free, love is always free" - Baatin

Titus "Baatin" Glover
March 8, 1974 – July 31, 2009