Many journalists compared Slum Village to A Tribe Called Quest. Upon its release in 1997, the album quickly became popular with fans of Detroit hip hop. In 1996, he formed the group Slum Village and recorded what would become their debut album Fantastic, Vol. In 1995 he also recorded 'Yester Years EP' with 5 Elementz (a group consisting of Proof, Thyme and Mudd). In 1995, Jay Dee and MC Phat Kat formed 1st Down and became the first Detroit hip hop group to sign with a major label ( Payday Records)-a deal that was ended after one single when the label terminated. This is where Fiddler introduced Q-Tip to Jay Dee, who gave Q-Tip a Slum Village demo tape.

Fiddler, while playing keyboards with Funkadelic on the group's slot on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, met Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, who were also on the lineup. In 1992, Yancey met the Detroit musician Amp Fiddler, who let him use his Akai MPC, a music workstation, which he quickly mastered. During these teenage years he 'stayed in the basement alone' in order to train himself to produce beats with his growing record collection. He also took up beat-making using a simple tape deck as the center of his studio. The three formed the rap group called Slum Village. After transferring from Davis Aerospace Technical High School to Pershing High School, he met classmates T3 and Baatin, and became friends with them through their mutual interest in rap battles. ДЄlong with a wide range of other musical genres, Yancey developed a passion for hip hop music. His mother said that he could 'match pitch perfect harmony' when he was a pre-verbal infant.

His parents had musical backgrounds his mother, Maureen вЂњMa DukesвЂќ Yancey, is a former opera singer and his father, Beverly Dewitt Yancey, was a jazz bassist, and performed Globetrotters half-time shows for several years. The family lived in a house on the northeast corner of McDougall and Nevada, on the east side of Detroit. James Yancey grew up in Detroit, Michigan.

4.2 Posthumously released studio albums.

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