Underground rap duo Cali Agents and Detroit hip-hop group Slum Village will release debut albums Tuesday (June 13) and will perform together this summer on several dates.

Slum Village will open for Cali Agents during some shows on the rap group's North American tour. The Roots, Bahamadia and Spontaneous also are scheduled to open for Cali Agents.

Cali Agents are a rap team forged by acclaimed West Coast lyricists Rasco (born Keida Brewer) and Planet Asia (born Jason Green). Both rappers have worked on solo projects, but this is their first effort together. Rasco independently released Time Waits for No Man in 1998 and collaborated with Planet Asia on one track, "Take It Back Home."

Planet Asia released a self-titled EP in 1999, and he is working on a debut LP, according to Nu Gruv Alliance spokesperson Trevor Seamon. He has appeared on Peanut Butter Wolf's My Vinyl Weighs a Ton and Sway & King Tech's Wake Up Show Freestyles Vol. 5.

The first single from the Cali Agents' album, How the West Was One, is "The Good Life" (RealAudio excerpt).

Slum Village — composed of Detroit rappers Jay Dee (born James Yancey), T3 born (RL Altman III) and Baatin (born Titus Glover) — collaborated with Pete Rock, D'Angelo, Q-Tip, Kurupt and Busta Rhymes on their debut album, Fantastic, Vol. 2. Busta Rhymes appears on "What It's All About" (RealAudio excerpt).

Their highly anticipated project has been the victim of zealous underground bootleggers during the past year, according to a Slum Village fan, Khary Kimani Turner, who has written about the group for more than three years.

T3 recently said he didn't feel any pressure recording hip-hop in the Midwest because the rap scene there still is forming. "I didn't grow up during Motown's heyday, where men were singing with each other on the street corner," he said. "Detroit doesn't have a huge music scene or standard rap style like the West or East Coast does. But that means we've had space to do our own thing."

Slum Village began their tour with Bahamadia on Thursday in San Diego.