WHO IS HE?
Curtis Cross, better known as Black Milk, is a 25-year-old Detroit producer/MC that many in underground hip-hop circles see as the sonic heir of the late, great J. Dilla. As a Motor City native who got his big break producing for Dilla’s former group Slum Village, it’s not hard to see why. But Black Milk hasn’t coasted on his connections — in fact, his prolific output over the last couple of years has given Lil Wayne a run for his money. Since Milk dropped his soul-powered 2007 full-length Popular Demand, his projects have included Caltroit, a mixtape so potent even the notoriously reclusive Dr. Dre made a brief cameo, and Music from the Color Purple, a beat tape based on samples from Prince’s Purple Rain. Milk’s latest release, Tronic, features his ever-improving rhyme skills, forays into live instrumentation and electronic sounds, not to mention the four-alarm-blaze single “Give the Drummer Sum.”

PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR DETROIT
“Everybody knows Detroit’s musical history from Motown to the techno scene,” says Black Milk. “I love being from the D, so I try to incorporate all these sounds into my music some kind of way or another.”

IS “GIVE THE DRUMMER SUM” THE LOVE CHILD OF FELA KUTI AND JAMES BROWN?
“That’s wassup, ’cos that’s the exact person I was listening to when I made it,” says Black Milk. “That whole track is inspired by James Brown, Fela Kuti and a lot of Afro-rock stuff I was listening to at the time. I was, like, I want to do something as funky as hell but still musical, that hip-hop people could listen to [and that] the underground will be able to feel, if there’s a little griminess to it. But at the same time [it would] still be able to get the party started [and] at the same time have a little commercial feel to it. It’s not really offbeat, it’s just the way it drops — it catches you off-guard at the start and it takes you a minute to catch the beat. I want to kind of challenge the people. I want to do the type of music that’s gonna make you think.”



IS HE WORKING WITH CANADIANS LIKE KARDINAL OFFISHALL AND COLIN MUNROE JUST BECAUSE WE’RE CLOSE TO DETROIT?
Truth be told, Black Milk’s connection with Kardinal Offishall was actually forged through LA-based Aftermath signee and Caltroit co-conspirator Bishop Lamont. However, his connection to Toronto-based singer songwriter Colin Munroe was fostered online. Searching for Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” video on YouTube he stumbled upon Munroe’s online hit video “I Want Those Flashing Lights.”

“I was, like, damn, this song is ridiculous, it’s kind of better than the original,” he laughs. When he realized Munroe had Dilla in his MySpace Top 8 it was a wrap, and Munroe ended up producing Tronic’s “Without U.” “Colin is a real talented dude,” Black Milk says. “He’s a funky-ass white boy for real.”

WHAT DOES HE SAY TO THOSE WHO FEEL HE MAY BE TOO INFLUENCED BY J. DILLA?
“Uh, you know, they’re right,” says Black Milk. “I’m influenced by Dilla a lot. That was the guy who made me want to start making beats...but I think with this new album, you really can’t hear a lot of Dilla or his sound. There’s a couple of tracks where you might feel that Detroit bounce or sound or whatever you might want to call it, but overall I think after listening to this album people are gonna have to put me in my own lane. I think the Dilla comparisons are always gonna be there, but as time goes on people are gonna be like, OK, ‘Black Milk is Black Milk.’”