Artist: Black Milk
Interviewer: Serge Fleury

If you look into the musical past of Detroit, Michigan, you'll discover the foundation of soul music. Names such as Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder helped lay the ground work for a new genre of music that would later become Hip-Hop. Now, as their hit songs of yesteryear get reincarnated into the current hits of today, we can thank a handful of people for helping to bring back that authentic soulful sound. One of the people responsible for resurrecting soul music is a 23 year old producer/MC from the Motor City named Curtis Cross; better known to most as Black Milk.

As one half of the former production duo B.R. Gunna, Black Milk help craft heading nodding beats for Slum Village. He then extended his musical talent across state lines and into New York, where he worked with the likes of G-Unit's star lyricist, Lloyd Banks and the always underrated Pharoahe Monch. After the releases of ''Sound Of The City'' and ''Broken Wax'," Black Milk quickly gained notoriety among the underground circuit and secured a record deal from independent label Fat Beats for his upcoming project, 'Popular Demand.

Since the tragic murder of Proof from D-12 and the rare illness that claimed the life of beat king J-Dilla, the void has yet to be filled within the Detroit Hip-Hop scene. SoundSlam.com was able to catch up with the young beatsmith as he discusses carrying on the torch for his fallen brethren, and how he doesn't come with an expiration date.

SoundSlam: So were you upset the Tigers didn't win the World Series?

Black Milk: (laughing) Yeah man we were disappointed because the Tigers been so horrible over the past few years, but it's all good we were just glad they made it.

SoundSlam: Well don't worry about it too much, I'm a Red Sox fan we haven't been any good either.

Black Milk: (laughing) Oh man ok, it's all good then.

SoundSlam: So what would you say is your first love, rhyming or producing beats?

Black Milk: Production man, I have more of a passion for producing beats than the rhyming. But if I had to pick between the two, I'd go with the production side of it.

SoundSlam: Detroit has always been known for it's underground scene, why don't you think more artists haven't gained commercial success?

Black Milk: I feel like we have a lot of good artists out here, but as far as breaking into mainstream, you just have to find that niche. No matter how good your music is; you have to find that one thing that's going to make it appeal to the masses. I think that's the only downfall that cats really got, I think when we find that we'll be good. That's where I'm at right now. I look at cats like Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, and their doing a nice amount of units; especially Kanye. So I'm looking at him, and he's doing basically an underground type of sound and being creative while just reinventing himself time after time. We are doing it too, but he found that element to somewhat make it pop, and he's doing good with it. So I think we just got to find that niche.

SoundSlam
Black Milk: Hopefully we can get back in the lab and do some B.R. Gunna s**t some time in the future. But right now, I'm doing my thing and he's doing his thing, and we'll just take it from there. I still work with my man Fat Ray, he was like the MC of B.R. Gunna, I'm still working with him he's on the new album. As a matter of fact, there wasn't no beef or nothing like that, just creative differences at times and more so at the label we were working with. The business wasn't getting taken care of, so that's why I had to step out and do my own thing.

SoundSlam: Oh, so you had more of a problem with the label?

Black Milk: Yeah man, me and Young RJ, we was cool. But on the business side of things, the money wasn't really getting handled right and I was like ''I could do better on my own'' (laughing) so that's when I did my solo thing.

SoundSlam: So, what can we expect to hear from you off your new album?

Black Milk: I'm keeping it in the same lane of music that I've been doing. It's a soulful album, but with a hard edge to it and also a street edge. The drums are still hitting hard, I got basically the whole team on there. Like Phat Kat and Slum Village, I also got a song with my man Guilty Simpson, and One.Be.Lo; who is also with Fat Beats.

SoundSlam: One.Be.Lo is really talented, he has a nice flow.

Black Milk: Yeah, One.Be.Lo, he's nasty and that's one of the hottest joints on the album too. I also got Ty Corey from out of L.A. It's just good Hip-Hop music, I didn't want to change the sound. I wanted to be experimental with this album, but I thought it would be too quick and too fast. Some people are familiar with me, but for those who are not, I didn't want to come off and go too far left with the music (laughing). So I kept it in the same lane as ''Sound Of The City'' and ''Broken Wax'', it's just dope hard hitting Hip-Hop music, and something you can enjoy. I mixed it up a little bit, but it's dope music man that's all it is.

SoundSlam: With the passing of J-Dilla, do you feel any pressure to help maintain that Detroit Hip-Hop sound?

Black Milk: Um.. I didn't really feel pressure, but there's a lot of people that are looking at me like I'm ''that dude.' But I really don't want to take on that pressure, because those are some big ass shoes to fill. Dilla came with a whole new sound, he had his own place in Hip-Hop, and if there is anything I want to copy from Dilla is just being consistent with the music for year and years to come. You really never heard any whack Dilla record, you know what I'm saying. He was always consistent no matter who he worked with, and it was always dope music. That's why I want to follow in his footsteps, of doing just putting out good music.

SoundSlam: So what were the key factors in deciding to pursue a solo career in New York and signing with Fat Beats?

Black Milk: There were a couple labels trying to holla at me, but Fat Beats was pursuing me the hardest. After I put out ''Sound Of The City'' in 2005. That made a nice little buzz for me on the underground circuit. So they picked up on it, and they were hollering at me and offered me a nice little deal. Plus they were fans of the music. Just off the stuff I did with Slum Village and a couple of other artists, so that made it even better. Just to know that they'd push the music and push the project just as much if I was doing it myself. That made me really want to work with them, and they were like ''you're free to do what you want to do, we trust your ear and what you're doing in music so we just want to put it out properly'' and I was like ''ok no doubt, lets do it.''

SoundSlam: So they pretty much gave you creative control over the whole project?

Black Milk: Well yeah...I just did what I do, you know (laughing) then I turned the album in. They were like ''ok cool we feeling it.'' They gave their input in, like the ''yay or nay'' on certain joints. But they still trust what I'm doing, I got a pretty good catalog of doing dope s**t, so they trusted my ear.

SoundSlam: What were some of the influences that help create your sound?

Black Milk: Well I listen to everything it's that simple. From old school to different genres, but I'd say Pete Rock, DJ Premier, and J-Dilla. I was listening to Dilla when I first started doing beats, those were the three dudes that really inspired me and influenced me. I'm really just trying to take what they did and somehow incorporate it into my sound, and do my thing with it. I'm trying to bring it to a younger audience, to cats that might not be familiar with them. I'm the youngest one out of the circle of all the cats I work with. I'm the youngest dude, so I'm trying to bring some youthful energy to the music. So those are the main cats that inspired me beat wise.

SoundSlam: Those are some pretty big names in that group.

Black Milk: Yeah that's what's up.

SoundSlam: Most people know you from a production standpoint, has it been hard to be accepted as an MC to a wider audience?

Black Milk: I don't think it'll be too hard, but I know the beats kind of overshadow the rhymes. But to the people that are familiar with me, they know I've been rapping just as long as I've been making beats. From B.R. Gunna and Dirty District Vol. 1 to the Slum Village stuff, people that don't know it, they should feel it and catch on. That's one thing I am trying to prove being a producer/rapper, I want them to kind of forget I did the beat and forget that I'm a producer at times. I want them to tune into the lyrics, but it's hard sometimes because a lot of people want to hear the production before they hear the rhyme. It's all good though, because it does go hand and hand. I'm confident at what I spit on the mic so I think people will feel the s**t.

SoundSlam: Have you gotten more attention for your production since the Chevrolet commercial aired featuring Slum Village?

Black Milk: That gave me a little bit of light. It shined some light on my name, and after the commercial dropped, it was a good look for me and Slum Village.

SoundSlam: What's one of the differences that you've noticed in the New York Hip-Hop scene versus the scene in Detroit?

Black Milk: It's kind of the same man y'all audience is somewhat like ours they're really critical (laughing). So you have to be on point with the music or whatever you doing, so it's similar. Y'all got your lyrical MC's, like we got the Elzhi's and the Guilty Simpson's and cats like that. Y'all got the Sean Price's and cats like that, but I think Detroit music is a little more soulful than all the other regions. Just because of the Motown era, and I think that blended in with our present day music. So I think that's what kind of took away from other regions, because we have more soul in our music.

SoundSlam: So how did you first hook up with Slum Village?

Black Milk: I had a cousin and he went out on the road with Slum Village. They heard a couple of my CD's and when they got back, they hollered at me and wanted me to come to the studio. I played a couple tracks for them, and kicked it with them and I ended up being on their 'Trinity' album. I had two tracks on there, one was the title track "Trinity," and ever since then I've been working with them.

SoundSlam: The way the industry is run now, there's always a fear about first week sales, do you feed into the whole soundscan frenzy?

Black Milk: I mean everybody wants to sell records, you know what I'm saying. So I do check for it, to see if cats are picking it up. I know my crowd, and I know what audience I'm going for. I know my lane, I got a certain lane I'm trying to stay in it. I know that might affect what I'm doing as far as record sales. I might do a certain type of music, but I'm not going to really change what I'm doing to just try and appeal to everybody. I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to dumb down my records like that. With that said, it's going to affect me every time if I don't do the pop or the dance records. It's really not a big issue with me, I'm trying to build up a nice fan base that's going to hold me down with every record. There's plenty of underground artists that go on tours and have longevity in Hip-Hop that's eating. They don't have to go platinum or gold, they are good with a few hundred thousand and they are straight.

SoundSlam: So id you feel any pressure in making Popular Demand to make sure it's well received?

Black Milk: Well like I said, I wanted to be a little more experimental with it. Even though I have some rock influenced tracks on there, I got some jazz influenced tracks on there and definitely some soul. But I kept in mind that I have to do it in a way that n***as can feel it. For the people out there that aren't in tune with the MF Doom's or the Madlib's or the Dilla's of the world. But it's still an underground Hip-Hop album. It's not watered down, I still got gritty stuff on there like I did with my previous projects. It's still in the same lane as ''Broken Wax'' and ''Sound Of The City'', and if you enjoyed those records; you should definitely enjoy ''Popular Demand.'' So I'm not really worried about it like that.