Black Milk
Album of the Year
Rating 3.0/5.0
Label: Fatbeats / Decon
The “rapper/producer” moniker comes with its own powder-keg of preconceived assumptions. You usually either get a quality rapper who makes average-to-good beats or a producer that makes good-to-great beats whose rapping performances at best manage to not ruin things. No matter what side the coin lands on, it’s one of a certain plateau-ing that tends to force an artist who was an engaging, ever-changing success in one medium to, for whatever reason, fail to demonstrate quality control in the other. Such is not the case with Detroit’s Black Milk. The protégé of exalted instrumental icon J Dilla, Milk found himself thrust into the spotlight after his mentor’s 2006 passing as something of the heir to his throne. While his production still showed a clear influence, it was refreshing, refined and promising enough to make his 2007 full-length debut Popular Demand a word-of-mouth sleeper hit. Unlike the typical “rapper/producer,” Milk then went on one of the most prolific recording benders the genre has ever seen, during which he not only grew by leaps and bounds as a producer and MC, but increased his fanbase in both arenas. This journey has something of a happy ending as his latest release Album of the Year is the record his supporters knew he had in him all along.
Album of the Year’s greatest strength is how definitively Detroit it sounds. Black Milk has never been a better producer, and his hometown loyalty has allowed him to craft the perfect snapshot of what Detroit Hip-Hop sounds like in 2010. For someone whose first official release was 2005′s Sound of the City, Milk has finally gone from the person who reflects the city’s sound to the person that defines it. Even the guests involved make for an all-Michigan mission, with appearances from homegrown heroes Royce da 5’9″, Elzhi of Slum Village, Melanie Rutherford, Monica Blaire, Danny Brown and D12′s Denaun Porter. All are artists who wouldn’t be the same had they come into their own anywhere else, and Black Milk knows how to cater to this strength perfectly.
As for Black Milk as a rapper, his performance fits him and this record perfectly. His growth as an MC has been documented as some of the most successful unintentional A&Ring in recent memory. Following Dilla’s passing, Milk found himself under a microscope where his raps were routinely picked apart. He combated this by furiously releasing an obscene amount of material that saw him get better-and-better before the public’s eye. He’s always had the endearing quality of early-Kanye West; he was a producer who tried his absolute hardest to be the best rapper he possibly could, having the daunting “rapper/producer” stigma making him more hungry. This made listeners not only relate to him as something of an everyman-rapper, but root for him as an underdog. In a 2010 hip-hop soundscape where attempting to sound as effortless as possible is the norm, Milk’s obvious effort is as engaging as it is energizing. Being a producer first, he uses his flow and lyrics as another instrument to match the hills and valleys of his productions, making Album of the Year a real journey.
But it’s what that journey entails that really seemed to make Black Milk peak. The name Album of the Year is not only the artist boasting about his own creation, but reflects the tumultuous 12-months that lead to its creation. Detroit’s best hip-hop has always been haunted by some aura of tragedy, and the death and heartbreak that surrounded Black Milk in this time is flushed out over the album’s 12 tracks. It’s a personal affair, allowing even the production’s moments of familiar samples to feel recognizable for a reason as Milk flips them and establishes them a new identity all his own. With no other cooks in the kitchen, it’s an intimate music memoir that with most likely be remembered as the definitive Black Milk-sterpiece.
by Chaz Kangas
Key Tracks: Deadly Medley, Welcome (Gotta Go), 365
