Black Milk Back By Popular Demand By Tru

21 October 2008 No Comment

Black Milk
Back By Popular Demand

Leaving fingerprints of bass runs and snare hits wherever he goes, Black Milk stuns ears and raises eyebrows with his dagger-stab analogies and boast-worthy street banter. Curtis “Black Milk” Cross is known as a production mastermind, his MPC is a deadly weapon, but he can write and spit with the best of ‘em. Black Milk is truly a one-man show. I was almost tempted to ask him if he books his own dates, too, but I bit my tongue.

Some argue that the workaholic hit maker is single-handedly taking Detroit hip-hop to the next level. The Detroit native is the production phenom behind many coveted Slum Village tracks, as well as much of the critically acclaimed August ’08 bomber The Preface by eLZhi. Black Milk also produced other note-worthy tracks including “Girls Wit The Boom” for Proof, “Death Wish” for Lloyd Banks, and the scorching cut “Let’s Go” for Pharoahe Monch to name just a few.

The producer turned MC, who graced the cover of RDW last year while being named Artist of the Year, released Popular Demand and a compilation, Caltroit, in ‘07 and has recently finished the follow-up, Tronic.

“Popular Demand was like a feel good album with more soul samples,” said Milk. Although Tronic features his signature hard-hitting drums, it’s less sample-heavy. “Out of all the projects I’ve put out, I think Tronic is really gonna show my versatility when it comes to production, rhyming and songwriting,” noted the hip-hop wunderkind. Tronic also features the likes of Royce da 5’9”, DJ Premier, Dwele, Sean Price, Pharoahe Monch and up-and-coming Canadian indie/pop/funkster Colin Munroe.

Tronic’s first single, “Give the Drummer Sum,” is already making noise on the Web and the video is soon to follow. Anthony Garth, who has constructed most of the high-profile music videos coming out of the Motor City, directed the video. “I think he’s the best video director — if not in the game — at least outta Michigan,” said Milk.

After Tronic drops, Black Milk, along with fellow Detroit heavyweights Sean Price and Guilty Simpson, will complete the anticipated Random Axe project — forecasting an early 2009 release date — then it’s back to the beats. “Big name artists hit me up tryin’ to get me to send them beats, but I just don’t have it at the time ‘cause I’m so focused on my shit, so I think I’ll get back to strictly producing for a minute,” Milk said. But he won’t be leaving our eardrums any-time soon. “I have so many ideas and I try to stay creative, but I can only do one thing at a time.”

Fresh off a brief European tour promoting Caltroit, Black Milk will release Tronic in style. What better place to drop a notable hip-hop album from Detroit than in the The D’s haven for hip-hop, The Shelter. Although he’s still “working the kinks out,” he plans to give his fans a show they won’t forget and may do some live production work onstage while he’s at it. And Black Milk didn’t hold back with the lineup either. Performances are slated to include Guilty Simpson, Danny Brown, Slum Village and sounds by DJ Dez. And cover is ONLY $2! | RDW

Black Milk CD Release • 10/28 • The Shelter

By Shannon DeVries
Oct 21, 2008, 10:42

Via Real Detroit Weekly

http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/content/article_4722.shtml