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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.
01. Long Story Short feat. Dwele
02. Bounce
03. Give The Drummer Sum
04. Without U feat. Colin Munroe
05. Hold It Down
06. Losing Out feat. Royce da 5′9"
07. Hell Yeah feat. Fat Ray
08. Overdose
09. Reppin For U feat. AB
10. The Matrix feat. Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, & DJ Premier
11. Try
12. Tronic Summer
13. Bond 4 Life feat. Melanie Rutherford
14. Elec (Outro)
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