Black Milk

Having launched his career as a fresh faced teenager producing tracks for Slum Village, Black Milk has rapidly built his career within the hip-hop world, and is referenced periodically as the protégée of the late J Dilla. Hailing from the streets
of Detroit—put on the hip-hop radar by Eminem—Black Milk now leads a solid consortium of underground emcees and producers like Wajeed, Guilty Simpson, and Elzhi, to be revered internationally as a new hip-hop Mecca. His most recent album, Tronic continues the authoritative grip that Detroit has on the underground hip-hop scene. Black discloses career ambitions, breaking out of the underground, pays homage to legends, and goes to church.

 Beyond Race: Was reaching a more diverse audience something that you consciously thought about while making Tronic?

Black Milk: Definitely. First of all, I knew it had to be better than Popular Demand. Secondly, it had to sound different than Popular Demand. Thirdly I wanted this to be my demo for the industry, as well as give something new to the underground hip-hop heads. I wanted to show that I could make a crossover record—a commercial record, if I wanted to. It’s just a real versatile album, a little left field. I definitely wanted to reach more than just a hip-hop audience.

BR: What’s the track on Tronic that you are most proud of?

BM: The song “Losing Out” with Royce da 5’9 because when I found the sample, I just couldn’t believe that no one hadn’t found it before me. Royce was doing his thing on it. But it was more than a dope beat. We were talking about some stuff on there, letting people know how I feel about Detroit—being underrated, and the underdog in the music industry. Even though people know we have talent out here, I feel like we still need exposure. The whole song is just crazy to me. It’s one of my personal favorites, and also “Bond 4 Life” too.

BR: Who are your top three collaborators so far?

BM: Pharoahe, Premier, and the third person will probably have to be J Dilla. Just because he was my biggest inspiration, and he’s the one who got me to do music and make beats. And I’ve had the chance to spit with him and collaborate with him on a couple of different tracks. I’ll say that was probably the highlight of my career. I understood him. We were from the same environment. I personally think he’s the best hip-hop producer of all time. It was dope working with him.

BR: Who are the architects that influenced you the most? What else influences your music?

BM: Anybody who is a classic emcee or producer, you’re going to have some influence on me. The main ones is Primo, Pete Rock, RZA and Madlib. There are a few albums by up-and-coming producers that might be considered underdogs in hip-hop. Producers like Jake One, I think is real dope. And Nottz. DJ Khalil, one of Dre’s producers is ridiculous. Focus, another one of Dre’s producers. Those are the new producers getting their name out. I always check for their music. There’s not too many people out there that I respect like them. I also get really inspired by movies to make me go to the studio and make beats.

BR: How do you decide what to sample? And what’s something that you want to challenge yourself with as a next project?

BM: I have sampled every type of music from rock, to jazz, to soul, to country. I’ve sampled every type of record, but I would like to work more with alternative music. Not sampling alternative music, but working with an indie pop artist. I’m in the process of doing that now with Colin Munroe, who’s on Tronic. We want to keep working with him, and do some experimental stuff that’s more musical, more clean, and more pop. I’m just trying to figure out how to bring his world, and my world of music together. And make a whole new crazy fresh sound. Probably be a small 6 or 7 song project. That’s my next thing. And I look at it like a challenge because Colin is actually a musician, so he works with live instruments. I dibble and dabble a little bit, but I haven’t mastered an instrument yet. It should be interesting to see how it comes up.

BR: Would there have been a Black Milk had there not been a Dilla?

BM: I would probably have to say…I don’t want to say no, but to tell you the truth I didn’t really get into records and doing beats until I heard Dilla’s music, until I heard Slum Village bootlegs around Detroit. My cousins were the ones that put me up to Dilla. They had the equipment set up at the crib where we were making beats, so I just started messing with their equipment. Dilla is the one that made me want to sample. I have to say, there probably would not have been a Black Milk if it wasn’t for Dilla. Even though there was Pete Rock, and a lot of other guys that was ridiculous on the beats, there was just something about Dilla’s style that made me want to do my own thing and take his element and make it into my own music.

BR: Let’s talk about music production’s transition from analogue to digital technology. Pro Tools changed up the entire game, but old school cats argue that analogue technology produces a sound that is more raw and multidimensional. You’re from the new school. What do you think about that?

BM: I think we need both. Being from the new generation, but being a fan of the old, most of the music I listen to is just old school music period. Personally I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with using new technology, if they making good music. Plus we don’t have to work as hard to do certain things. But just because you have a lot of help with different programs, and technology, doesn’t mean that you can just make a dope beat or record. A lot of times people get it confused. They think Fruit Loops is making it too easy for people to make music. Not really, because they still have to buy the samples, and program the stuff. I use both. I try to get the analogue sound but with using new school technologies.

BR: I already know the answer to this, but I have to hear it from you…Prince or Michael?

BM: Come on! Alright…Prince. I mean Michael Jackson is ridiculous. But just me personally, I’m going to have to say Prince. Do you really need a reason?

BR: Naw, just curious. What are your thoughts about hip-hop being “Black” music?

BM: It definitely began as “Black” music. But right now, black people are the ones that are doing it, but it’s a lot more universal. People from different backgrounds, nationalities, all over the world are doing hip-hop. It’s a universal music, and universal language. We created it and started it, but it’s good to see what it’s turned into, years down the line.

BR: Looking at previous trends of music, like Jazz—where it’s becoming increasingly academicized—and the face of it has changed. Do you think that hip-hop has a similar fate?

BM: I won’t say I’m scared of it, but I think about it a lot. Will there come a time when people just forget about the golden era of hip-hop? I think about that all the time. Hip-hop, I think will always be like a—I don’t want to say a black thing, but black people will always be doing it. I understand what you’re saying that there are not that many black musicians in Jazz. Hip-hop is for the ghetto, and for the underdog, for black culture, and black people. We all relate to that, we’ll always be apart of whatever the music becomes. We will always be apart of creating new sounds and new forms of hip-hop.

BR: You talk about growing up in the church and being surrounded by gospel music. Can you talk about how religion—or not so much religion—but spirituality, plays a part in your music?

BM: It plays a pretty big part my life period. It comes out of my music. It’s hard to put it into words. Making soul music, there’s a spiritual thing in it. You have to have some type of feeling inside you when you create it. There’s only a certain type of artist who can make you feel a certain feeling when you’re listening to their music. That’s the spiritual thing from them mastering their craft, and being able to absorb some of the spirituality from artists that came before them. There’s only a handful of artists in today’s time that you could just feel some kind of soul from what they made, and Dilla is one of those people I think of. That’s one of the main reasons that I feel like I probably wouldn’t have been doing music if it wasn’t for him. I don’t know what it was, I can’t put my finger on it, but it was something I felt when I listened to his music. I felt like he was not from this planet. I wanted to know the history, and the spirituality, and go down his family tree, ‘cause I knew there was something in him—call it spiritual or not—from his ancestors that brings it out of the music. I don’t know if people feel that way about me when they listen to my stuff.

I just loved being around gospel music. That’s the blackest music you can get. But that same feeling, the same goes to soul, and goes to funk, and goes to hip-hop. It’s the root to all of this. It started way back from slavery, when they didn’t have instruments…

 Words by:Boyuan Gao
Photo by: Nina Oliver

http://www.myspace.com/blackmk