Black Milk Tronic Album Reviews

27 October 2008 No Comment

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The Motor City is currently experiencing a regional renaissance, perhaps inspired by the tragic losses of Proof and J Dilla in 2006. With Detroit’s golden child Eminem making a brief but memorable return to rap recently, former Slim Shady co-conspirator Royce Da 5’9” wreaking havoc in the mixtape game and the disciples of Jay Dee making waves throughout the underground scene, Detroit is having its own golden era right now.

Another talent to emerge from that pool is producer Black Milk [click to read]. Perhaps the most directly connected of artists to come from the house of Dilla, the talented beatsmith has drawn comparisons to the late great with his sonic compositions found everywhere, either locally with Slum Village and Guilty Simpson [click to read] or across the country with Lloyd Banks and Bishop Lamont [click to read]. After his debut album Popular Demand last year thrust him into a larger spotlight, Black Milk returns to his solo roots with Tronic.

Like most producer-on-the-mic artists Black Milk is not the most lyrically gifted but can capably hold his own, and he makes up for those shortcomings – and in some cases masks – with his wonderfully dense beats. After giving a hookless autobiography on the album’s opener “Long Story Short,” Milk goes in on the stuttering lead single “Give The Drummer Sum,” [click to listen] backed by triumphant horns and a quirky helium-pitched hook, spitting, “Got a hotter flow than most of these monotone emcees/simply kick a better hymn, please/get a breath in, just breathe/spotlights, pop life, I’m the next thing.” Crossing the border into Canada, he then links up with Toronto’s Colin Munroe to reminisce about former flings on “Without U.”

Like his previous outing Black Milk brings along some of rap’s finest along for the ride. He links up with fellow B.R. Gunna member Fat Ray on the sinister “Hell Yeah” and rides shotgun with Pharoahe Monch and Sean Price [click to read] on the head-knocker “The Matrix,” [click to listen] complete with a DJ Premier scratched chorus. But although he tries to match wits with Royce Da 5’9” on the aptly-titled “Losing Out,” [click to listen] he’s simply out of his league against Nickel Nine’s verbal gymnastics: “Let’s talk about makin’ niggas’ hard-earned money yours/puttin’ money on heads like I’m payin’ their barber.”

Tronic is by no means perfect, however. “Bounce” suffers from weak rhymes and an even weaker instrumental, while “Hold It Down” is a sleepy tune loaded with blingy tales, typically conflicted thoughts and lyrical filler. Meanwhile Black Milk’s raps don’t deviate from his flashy raps and insightful rhymes. While they sometimes combine to make a great cut, as evidenced by “Try,” it gets boring and ultimately drags down the album.

With another strong outing in Tronic, Black Milk continues the trend of Detroit’s musical revolution. With its quality beats and above-average raps, Motown has delivered another dope album to go along with their revolution.

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Black Milk - Tronic

Record Label: Fatbeats
Featured Artists: Sean Price, Dwele, Royce Da 5’9″, Pharoahe Monch
Article by: Serge Fleury

Detroit has a long lineage when it comes to creating quality music whether you want to factor in Hip-Hop or not. But if you do throw Hip-Hop into the mix, then make sure Producer/MC Curtis “Black Milk” Cross is at the top of your clipboard. The baby-faced production prodigy has done his part to keep the spirit of J Dilla alive by crafting some of the hardest beats around, that would leave toughest underground Hip-Hop fan in a neck brace.

His productions credits are a who’s who of authentic MC’s as well as his collaboration efforts. He’s kept his fan base well fed with his albums, Sound Of The City Vol. 1, the Broken Wax EP, and Popular Demand. Not to mention joint ventures like Caltroit with Bishop Lamont, The Set Up with Fat Ray, The Preface with Slum Village’s Elzhi where (where he contributed to 14 out of 16 tracks), the much anticipated Random Axe project with Sean Price and Guilty Simpson—and now he plans on adding his fourth solo album, Tronic to a young but already impressive catalog.

Of course, all 14 songs are produced by Black Milk starting off with ‘Long Story Short’ featuring Detroit soul man Dwele. If your eardr Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. ums get pass the perfect arrangement of drums, organs, and horns, then you’ll be able to listen to Black Milk’s brief bio, “Doing beats, see he’s gettin’ better brah/listenin’ to Pete Rock, Preemo, Dilla on the regular/I’m telling, ya/couldn’t tell me nothing to my ears/determined/learnin’ how to get my sound as good as theirs.”

From there, he fully pays respect to a producer’s best friend; the drums on ‘Give The Drummer Sum.’ Over the predominately drum-orient track, Milk shows that he’s been working on his word game just as much as he’s been perfecting his sound waves. Royce Da 5’9” pays a visit on the guitar-laden ‘Losing Out,’ and he brings his metaphor A-Game with him, “Puttin’ money on heads, like I’m payin’ their barbers.”

‘The Matrix’ is the equivalent of a real Hip-Hop show you’d probably catch in some small smoke-infested venue with artists like Sean Price and Pharoahe Monch taking part, while DJ Premier rounds out the back on the 1’s and 2’s. Over the futuristic rhythms and snares Black Milk starts off the festivities, “For every pair of lines I spit/it’ll leave you paralyzed, and bent/so clear a path/if ya not parallel to my paragraphs” followed by Pharoahe Monch’s, “Four-fingered ring rap/sling-slang, Pharoahe the flow’s good/you couldn’t hang if you were Ving Rhames in Rosewood” as Sean Price continues with, “Clark Kent with the glasses off/probably f*ckin’ Lois Lane cause her ass is soft/Kryptonite, but I’m a Blood today/Latin King tomorrow, keep it caliente” all while DJ Premier shows off the voice-sampled scratch-in hooks that he made so famous.

For those wanting to test their lyrical ability against Black Milk’s production, their chance comes on ‘Tronic Summer.’ The instrumental track goes on for over two minutes and has Black Milk’s voice faintly in the background, whereas the beat itself might give some listeners a J Dilla feel.

The rest of the album contains automatic repeat songs like, ‘Bounce 4 Life’ featuring Melanie Rutherford, the relationship antics of ‘Without U’ featuring Colin Munroe, the head banging ‘Hell Yeah,’ ‘Overdose,’ and the hypnotizing melodies of ‘Reppin For You’ featuring AB. Black Milk’s Tronic album is not a project to be shunned into the realms of the underground, because even those who avoid backpackers as if they were stricken with leprosy would find this album very rewarding. It’s filled with all the elements Hip-Hop was based off before it got branched into all different kinds of categories. Dope beats and dope rhymes equals an exceptional album; you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out—and judging by this CD alone, it’s easy to see that Black Milk is sitting way ahead of the class.

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In only a few years, producer/emcee Black Milk has quickly developed into one of the few hip hop artists who both carries an accomplished resume and is followed with widely-held optimism about what he can bring as one of the leaders of the modern hip hop movement.

Now 25 years old, Black (born Curtis Cross) earned his stripes both locally in his native Detroit and on a national level from his associations with Slum Village. After getting his first production credit for “What is This” on SV’s sophomore album “Trinity” in 2002, he produced much of the popular group’s next two albums both individually and as part of the production team BR Gunna, with whom he also released the album “Dirty District, Vol. 2.” It wasn’t until his self-released debut solo album “Sound of the City” in 2005 did he begin to achieve some notoriety as an emcee, and it was off the strength of the album that he signed his first record deal with Fat Beats Records in 2006.

Upon the release of his “Popular Demand” album in March 2007, Black Milk instantly became one of underground hip hop ambassadors. In addition to becoming a go-to producer for commissioned beats on an independent level (he’s placed beats on projects by Kidz in the Hall, Guilty Simpson, Strange Fruit Project, Genius/GZA, and many more), he’s also worked with major label artists like Pharoahe Monch, Kardinal Offishall, and Busta Rhymes. He’s also since released two albums on his own Music House imprint (Fat Ray’s “The Set Up” and “Black Milk presents Caltroit”), produced nearly an entire album for Elzhi from Slum Village (”The Preface”), and produces and rhymes as a member of the group Random Axe (with Sean Price and Guilty Simpson) who have a full length album dropping in first quarter 2009.

His new album “Tronic” shows that Black has grown tremendously as a producer, as he’s adopted more live instrumentation and is introducing more complex arrangement than his previous sample-heavy work. He also shows marked improvement as an emcee, and carries most of the album himself with only 3 guest verses on the entire album (from emcee royalty Pharoahe Monch, Royce Da 5’9″, and Sean Price). Not even two years removed from his breakthrough release, Black Milk proves on “Tronic” that not only is he growing as an artist, but hip hop music as a genre still has room to grow.

Track listing

1. Long Story Short feat. Dwele (Produced By : Black Milk)
2. Bounce (Produced By : Black Milk)
3. Give the Drummer Sum (Produced By : Black Milk)
4. Without U feat. Colin Munroe (Produced By : Colin Munroe)
5. Hold it Down (Produced By : Black Milk)
6. Losing Out feat. Royce Da 5’9 (Produced By : Black Milk)
7. Hell Yeah feat. Fat Ray (Produced By : Black Milk)
8. Overdose (Produced By : Black Milk)
9. Repin for U feat. AB (Produced By : Black Milk)
10. The Matrix feat. Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, DJ Premier (Produced By : Black Milk)
11. Try (Produced By : Black Milk)
12. Tronic Summer (Produced By : Black Milk)
13. Bond 4 Life feat. Melanie Rutherford (Produced By : Black Milk)
14. Elec (Outro) (Produced By : Black Milk)

5 out of 5

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