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The trend of the emcee-producer has run rampant in Hip Hop from the likes of Dr. Dre, will.i.am and Kanye West to even David Banner, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell and in the case of Detroit’s Black Milk it is no different. After a history of working with Slum Village, Lloyd Banks, Pharoahe Monch and the late J Dilla in production, Black Milk has indulged in his lyrical side and released albums, Sound of the City and his more recent piece, Popular Demand. Popular Demand is laced with the same classic Detroit soul found in Sound of the City, with a slue of local artists as well as an impressive collaboration between Slum Village and their ex-member, Baatin.
After a fortunate run in with Slum Village in 2002, Black Milk’s career has taken off and has led him to his current projects with Sean Price and Bishop Lamont as well as the highly anticipated Pharoahe Monch LP, Desire. Looks like Eminem wasn’t the 8 mile’s only rising star.
How are you?
I’m alright.
What have you been working on?
Uhh just right not I’m in promo mode for the album just tryna push that and besides that working on beats. I got a couple of side projects that’s coming out this year, this summer or what not.
Black Milk is an interesting name, any particular meaning?
Naw, not really. There’s not really a deep meaning behind the name its just something I came with. I said if I ever got into the industry and took this real serious you know music or producing and emceeing I always said I waned a name that was gonna stand out and stick out from everyone elses. That’s basically where it came from just you know write words on a piece of paper and Black Milk just came together.
What made you decide you wanted to pursue a career in music?
I was always around music. From my family being into it and just Aunties, Uncles and my parents, everybody that was around me was always into music and eventually then occurred Hip Hop and being around older cousins I was already into Hip Hop and watching them. Plus they was already doing their own little production at their own little production center at the house and I would go over there and watch them emcee and record little songs and what not. I just got interested and took to it and started doing it myself and found out that I had a gift for music and just start taking it at one point and time took it seriously. This is what I want to do, my career and I’ve been doing it ever since. That was like ’99, ’98.

What would you consider to be your big break into music?
Big break into music? Ummm…well I can say the first time that I was into the beats more than the rhymes even though I’ve been emceeing longer but I got a bigger passion for making beats. So the first group I sold my beats to I think was Slum Village and that was in 2002 I think on one of their albums called Trinity. The Trinity album and yeah, I sold a couple beats to them, met them through a friend and a cousin of mine that was already friends with them. They got a hold of one of my PC’s on one of their tours and came back to the city and hooked up...listened to some more and picked a couple tracks and like I said that was the first time I [laid down] a track with a group that was already established.
Who are your idols and music influences?
Producer wise the people that inspire me the most or influenced me the most when I first started doing beats and production was producers like Pete Rock, DJ Premier, J Dilla was like the biggest inspiration and influence on what I’m doing right now so when you hear my music you can hear a little bit of each one of those producers, a little bit of their trademark, a little bit of their sound in my music just the soulfulness and the hard hitting drums.
What equipment do you use?
I do the majority of my beats on the MPC 2000 XL. That’s where I do all my beats on…sampling off of old records, Pro Tools, and I’m getting a little more into live instrumentation, live drums and live keys. But the MPC 2000 XL is my main tool.
Were you taught or did you pick it up on your own?
I basically taught myself to use the MPC the machine wasn’t that hard to work so I was making a couple of beats the first night I got it.
How did you develop your style?
I guess just being around like other Detroit artists, there’s a certain Detroit sound here, a Hip Hop sound, like the underground Hip Hop sound, just a certain bouncy, loose feel to it and soulfulness to it. Like I said, Dilla was one of my inspirations and he founded with that sound so I kind of just head off what he was doing, (as well as)some other producers that’s in the game right now that’s from Detroit made it into my own. Like I said, that’s how I basically found my sound. I listen to a lot of different genres of music so I’m always creating, reinventing what I’m doing. My sound is not just one signature sound. I’m always changing up.

Would you say your role in rap and production parallels that of Pete Rock or Kanye West in the sense that you either feature several artists on your beats or choose to do most of the rapping yourself?
Yeah, I do feature. Like on my new album I have quite a few features mostly features of artists I’ve been working with for a while and artists from Detroit. It doesn’t sound like you’re listening to a mixtape or compilation. I’m rapping on every song but I do have a certain number of features on it. I like to work with other artists. I don’t wanna just have my voice on every track, I like to mix it up.
Do you feel that as a producer you don’t get enough credit because some feel that the beats are what can solidify a hit single in the charts?
No, I wouldn’t say that. I think that at this point and time in the music industry the Hip Hop industry you kind of know who’s behind the boards. Back then, like in the 90s you really didn’t know who was behind the boards but now you know because the producers shout their name in the track, see producers in the video and all of that. So I don’t think its at a point where producers play in the background, they not getting their credit. I think producers get enough shine.
What are your thoughts on ghost producing? It seems to get even less coverage than ghost writing conspiracies.
I don’t have nothing against it. I know cats that do ghost production. It’s a good thing to get on. Especially if you ghost producing for a [big name]. And a lot of producers that’s big today, they definitely started out by ghost producing. Its one way to get your foot in the door in the music industry. Then eventually you do your own thing once you have built that credit up and you build up that name for yourself.
What producer do you think you are compared to the most and why?
That’s a question that I really don’t wanna answer. A lot of people compare me, compare my sound to J Dilla a lot with the beats. It’s not that I’m doing his style but I think they’re comparing him to me because we’re form the same city. We’re both emceeing producers, we both work...well we’ve both worked with the same artists, and plus we done worked together in the past we done worked on a few different tracks. They look at me like a younger version of what he’s doing but I’m not tryna be that. I’m tryna cut that whole tie from Dilla. The only thing I wanna do that J Dilla did is be consistent and put out good music. Yeah that whole J Dilla thing is not a good look for me because I’m not tryna do what he did.

Would you say your role in rap and production parallels that of Pete Rock or Kanye West in the sense that you either feature several artists on your beats or choose to do most of the rapping yourself?
Yeah, I do feature. Like on my new album I have quite a few features mostly features of artists I’ve been working with for a while and artists from Detroit. It doesn’t sound like you’re listening to a mixtape or compilation. I’m rapping on every song but I do have a certain number of features on it. I like to work with other artists. I don’t wanna just have my voice on every track, I like to mix it up.
Do you feel that as a producer you don’t get enough credit because some feel that the beats are what can solidify a hit single in the charts?
No, I wouldn’t say that. I think that at this point and time in the music industry the Hip Hop industry you kind of know who’s behind the boards. Back then, like in the 90s you really didn’t know who was behind the boards but now you know because the producers shout their name in the track, see producers in the video and all of that. So I don’t think its at a point where producers play in the background, they not getting their credit. I think producers get enough shine.
What are your thoughts on ghost producing? It seems to get even less coverage than ghost writing conspiracies.
I don’t have nothing against it. I know cats that do ghost production. It’s a good thing to get on. Especially if you ghost producing for a [big name]. And a lot of producers that’s big today, they definitely started out by ghost producing. Its one way to get your foot in the door in the music industry. Then eventually you do your own thing once you have built that credit up and you build up that name for yourself.
What producer do you think you are compared to the most and why?
That’s a question that I really don’t wanna answer. A lot of people compare me, compare my sound to J Dilla a lot with the beats. It’s not that I’m doing his style but I think they’re comparing him to me because we’re form the same city. We’re both emceeing producers, we both work...well we’ve both worked with the same artists, and plus we done worked together in the past we done worked on a few different tracks. They look at me like a younger version of what he’s doing but I’m not tryna be that. I’m tryna cut that whole tie from Dilla. The only thing I wanna do that J Dilla did is be consistent and put out good music. Yeah that whole J Dilla thing is not a good look for me because I’m not tryna do what he did.

What are your favorite tracks on the album and why?
My favorite joint I think it would have to be…I think it would have to be the song I did with Slum Village because the song features Baatin on it too and he’s an ex-member of Slum Village so just to have all three guys on the same song once again. Him and Elzhi & T3 haven’t done song together since the Trinity album so just to get them all on one song was dope. Yeah that’s like one of my favorite tracks on there.
Why was the album released under Fat Beats instead of Barak Records?
Uhh cause I’m not on Barak Records. I never was on Barak Records. I worked with those dudes just cause I work with Barak just because Slum Village was on Barak Records and a few other artist was on Barak that I was producing for but I never was signed to Barak Records. I was just an in-house producer for some of the artists and I put out one project under them when I was in this group called BR Gunna and we put out this project called Dirty District under Barak but I still wasn’t signed to them. I was always a free agent.
Is there a BR Gunna reunion in your future?
It might be. Hopefully, we can make something happen. We had an album that was damn near done it was like 80% done but it got shelved for whatever reason by Barak so that’s another reason why I stepped out and started doing my own solo thing because of that situation. Hopefully we can get back in the studio and make something happen. Like I said, I still work with Fat Ray, who’s like the emcee of BR Gunna, so I been working wit him tryna get him in a situation right now. So yeah, like I said, hopefully we get back in the studio in the future.
If you were to be locked in the studio with any other artist, who would they be and why?
Hmmm [sigh] Does it have to be Hip Hop? Or it can be anybody?
It can be anybody.
Uhh I don’t know, there’s a few different artists, there’s a lot of artists I would love to be in the studio with but if I had to pick one…I’d probably pick someone like D’Angelo. A guy that’s talented all the way around from live instruments, to singing, to everything. He’s a great talent. So I’d probably love to get in the studio with him and try to make something crazy happen musically. So yeah, it’d probably be him.

What can we expect from you in the future?
Just more good Hip Hop music. My next few projects coming out is gonna be the sound is gonna be a little different than what I’m doing for Popular Demand. Like each project I put out for now on is gonna sound different from the last. I have one project with Guilty Simpson and Sean Price, you know the Boot Camp Clik, and they’re doing a duo album together and I’m doing most of the production. I’m a do a little emceeing on it but I’m a do the majority of the beats so got that dropping, hopefully we can get that out by the summer. Besides that I got another project coming out with an Aftermath artist, Bishop Lamont, out there on the west coast. Me and him are doing a project called Caltroit. It’s gonna be Cali artists and Detroit artists mixin them up on one project just to try something different. Hopefully that can be dropping this summer too. We almost done with that. What else? Working on a new Slum Village. Like I said got Pharoahe Monch album coming up and I got two tracks on there. One called “Let’s Go” another one called “Bar Tap.” Yea that’s about it so far.

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Cropped_Stunts

Thanks a bunch...been fiendin' for that popular demand which I just d/l'd...