Whether you listen to Hip-Hop to snap your fingers, nod your head, learn the new dance craze, or recite your favorite MC’s lyrics, one thing is certain—good music is good music regardless of where it comes from. For any true Hip-Hop lover, having an open mind to new forms of the genre should be instant, however that’s not always the case. If your name is not plastered as the headliner performing at some huge venue, getting your name out there might be harder than TMZ catching Shauna Sand fully clothed walking down Hollywood Boulevard past nightfall. Most new acts have to start a grassroots movement in order to pick up a head of steam, and others can just command the eardrums of doubters by producing some of the best beats in the business; and that’s the route that Curtis “Black Milk” Cross has taken.
The MC/Producer from Detroit and former member of B.R. Gunna surpassed other methods of notoriety by becoming one with his studio equipment and forging a sound that had some of the most well-recognized names in Hip-Hop asking to be in the booth while he worked the boards. His short but impressive collection of records incorporates the essence of what Detroit Hip-Hop has come to be. Now with his fourth album in three years, he continues to maintain the spirit of his fallen Detroit brethren in every snare, every kick, and every high hat as he keeps his music pure with no added flavors or artificial sweeteners.
Rap Sheet: The Detroit [Pistons] has a new head coach this year; do you feel lucky about you guys’ season?
Black Milk: Man, we always feel lucky about the [Detroit] Pistons, you know what I’m saying? Even when we have bad seasons, we still end up doing pretty good… [Laughing] So I’m just going to cross my fingers…
Rap Sheet: So talk about your Tronic album, how do you think you’ve grown musically since Popular Demand?
Black Milk: After Popular Demand was done, it got a lot of good responses, and like all artists, I went back and listened to it to see what I could’ve have done better. So I basically knew once it was time for me to go into another album, I had to step everything up from the production to the rhymes. I took time on everything, but I had a short amount of time to work on it. I only had four to five months, which isn’t a long time when you’re trying to put together a timeless classic album… [Laughs] I wish I had more time to do more stuff, but I had to make it work. I wanted to make sure I came with a different sound, a different approach, and a different style—and I think I pulled it off pretty dope, so I’m satisfied with the end result.
Rap Sheet: Also, on this album it didn’t sound like you sampled as much as you did on Popular Demand. Was that a conscious decision on your part?
Black Milk: I still sampled a lot of the album, but it was more about how I used the sample this time around, and about the records I sampled. I was chopping up more abstract stuff, and a lot of obscure stuff, so you probably wouldn’t recognize the loop. But on Popular Demand, it was a lot of soul samples and probably stuff people could find. This time around I wanted to do a different style of samples. There was some rock stuff on there, along with other stuff, I just added on to that production. I still had the dirty drum breaks; the hard drum breaks, and drum kicks. That’s what I basically kept in mind when I was doing the beats for this album.
Rap Sheet: Did you chop it more this time around to cover your tracks, so other wouldn’t be able to copy? [Laughs]
Black Milk: [Laughs] Well not really to bite me, it wasn’t about another producer biting me and what I do; it was just really about me wanting to do a new sound. That was my whole focus right there, I really wanted to do a whole new sound, and I wasn’t thinking about people imitating or copying the style. I was just thinking about doing what I do, and loving it before I put it out. If I just made the track, and it was dope; then I’m not using it. I had to love it. If I wasn’t getting excited about the beat two to three bars in, I’d erase the track, and that’s how I did every beat on this album. Anybody can make a dope beat, but I was trying to make some ridiculous sh*t for this album.
Rap Sheet: People label you as a bona fide “underground artist.” Now does that sit well with you, or would you just rather be considered as an “artist” period?
Black Milk: It’s all good man; it ain’t really about the labels when you hear people titling me. They call me “backpack” or “underground,” but I’m an independent artist doing good music; and that’s all I want people to recognize. So the titles really don’t faze me like that, because everybody is going to have their own opinion on where I should go. As long as they recognize that the music is good, that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
Rap Sheet: Did you always rhyme at the beginning of your career, or was it something you picked up along the way?
Black Milk: I rhymed before I got into making beats. I was MC’ing, writing, and recording tracks. But eventually got into making beats, and seeing how this side of the music game works. Once I found out how to work equipment, and different formulas about beat making—but really once I found out that producers made more money that’s what really made me want to get into it… [Laughing] That’s when I wanted to f*ck with it more than MC’ing. But yeah, I was MC’ing before I started doing beats.
Rap Sheet: Speaking of being an MC versus a producer, do you ever feel like your rhymes will take a backseat or get overshadowed by your beats since people really know you for your production first and foremost?
Black Milk: I feel that way a lot of the time, like people might not catch certain rhymes, flows, or patterns just because they’re so caught up in the beat. It’s still cool though, as long as you’re listening to the music, that’s all that matters. Whether you love the beats more than the rhymes, or the rhymes more than the beats, it doesn’t matter. The beats can overshadow your rhymes, and I admit that I take more time on the production end than on my rhymes anyways.
So 9 times out of 10 the track is going to overpower whoever is spitting on the beat. I can write a “16” in a half hour to an hour, but I can be trying to perfect a beat from a day all the way up to two weeks. Every track on the album has been tweaked a little bit. I’m always going back and tweaking something until it’s time for me to master it.
Rap Sheet: During your tweaking phase, have you ever felt like you’ve “over produced” a beat?
Black Milk: I feel like there is such a thing as a producer over producing the track by putting too much into it. But the simpler can be better at times, and you can get your point across better that way. Sometimes you can’t put too many sounds in the track, because sometimes there might be something you want the people to hear, but it gets over powered. So try to keep that in mind because there were certain tracks where I kept adding music to it, but I know better than that to leave a track with “too much,” and so I had to strip some of the stuff away. If it’s not necessary, then I’m erasing it off the track.
Rap Sheet: Do you have any way to differentiate the beats that you want to use for your own projects, as opposed to material you might pitch to an artist?
Black Milk: Yeah because I know what sound and what style of beat I want to rock to. When I was working on this album, I didn’t do any outside production, I wasn’t focused on getting out beat CD’s or emailing beats to artists; everything was about “Tronic.” I was making sure the beats were right for me first, and then I was doing outside production. But when I do tracks, it really depends on how the track comes out, and then I know whether I’ll use it for myself, or if I want to give it to someone else.
Rap Sheet: Was there ever a time an artist snuck a listen to a beat you were going to use, and tried to strong arm you for it? [Laughs]
Black Milk: That happened a couple times between Slum Village and I, because we work together a lot; especially in the beginning when I started working with them… [Laughing] The first couple of tracks they bought from me, they heard them because I used them with a group I was with at the time. We were going back and forth because I didn’t know if I wanted to let them get the tracks or not, but that has happened a few times.
Rap Sheet: So how did you get [DJ] Premier to do the cuts on ‘The Matrix’? Was that a case of you reaching out to him, or did you two know each other before the album?
Black Milk: I ran into [DJ] Premier a few different times, and we chopped it up a few different times before. Fat Beats got back in touch with him and got us on the phone, and we talked for a bit. After that, I sent him the track and he did his thing by putting the legendary Preemo cuts and scratches on the track, and it turned out dope. He called me the night he was doing it, and he was like, “Yo, what’s the name of the track?” So I told him it was called ‘The Matrix.’ After that he went in and sent the track back to me the next day. That was that, and the song came out crazy.
Rap Sheet: He did it in one night?!
Black Milk: [Laughs] Yeah he did it in one night… I don’t know how he found the cuts that said the matrix, and I don’t know how his library is, but he did it that night, and sent the record back to me early that next day… [Laughs] I was like, “Man, how the hell did you find a Jay-Z record with him saying “matrix” on it and cut it up?!” [Laughing] He’s been doing it for so long, it’s probably nothing for him to go and find a certain phrase or a certain word and scratch it on the hook… [Laughs] That just showed me more of how legendary he is.
Rap Sheet: Sounds like it! [Laughs] With you being one of the most highly regarded artists coming out of Detroit right now; do you ever feel like you’re carrying a lot of weight on your shoulders?
Black Milk: Not really because all that matters is that the music speaks for itself. If I can continue to put out good music, then I’m going to continue on holding it down for my city and put other artists on who I think are talented. So as long as I keep doing good music, there shouldn’t be any pressure. Right now I have so many directions where I want to go with music, and so many styles I want to try, so I’m going to be here for a minute.
Rap Sheet: Between working on your own projects and projects for other artist, do you ever feel burned out?
Black Milk: Not really, but it worries me sometimes physically. But the actual creating process never gets tiresome. My mind is working 24/7 on trying to be the best out here. Whether I’m independent or not, I want people to know that I’m one of the top people out here. That’s the goal I want to reach, and I have a lot of work to do to make that happen.
Rap Sheet: Where do you think a lot of producers go wrong when trying to be heard?
Black Milk: What they should do in order to try and get into the industry is to try and create their own sound, and try to create their own lane. Everybody has somebody that inspired them to get into music, and at first their tracks might sound like the person’s who influenced them. With me, [J] Dilla was a big influence and so was Pete Rock, so a lot of my first beats kind of had that feel to it until I got into my own.
But after that, just find your own lane and style so you can eat off of that, because people want to hear something new, something fresh, and something different. So that’s probably the advice I’d give to an up-and-coming producer or artist. It’s a long haul, and you can be grinding for six or seven years before something happens, like a lot of artist do. So if you can’t hold it down, then you probably don’t need to get into this music game, because it can be rough at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment