Spirit of rebellion

An interview with Black Milk

Raised with Gospel music and heavily inspired by soul, Curtis Cross, aka Black Milk, has been writing rhymes since he was 15. Though a skilled lyricist, it’s his beat making that made him famous and led to any producer’s dream job: working with the late J Dilla. When Dilla chose to pursue a solo career following the release of Best Kept Secret, Black Milk was elected to take his place in the Detroit group Slum Village. 

However, Black Milk does not live in J Dilla’s shadow. He’s forged his own path in the industry, always evolving as a musician and building upon previous projects.

His latest album, The Rebellion Sessions, released April 4. On Friday (April 8), he’ll perform in Tulsa as part of The Kings Court Tour, alongside Detroit legends Slum Village, Guilty Simpson, and Phat Kat, all of whom have had the honor of collaborating with J Dilla.

We spoke on the phone recently about the tour and his new album.

TTV: Thank you so much for taking my call, I’m a huge fan.

BM: Oh man, I appreciate it. It’s kinda crazy—we are leavin’ tomorrow, so I’m kinda runnin’ around. First show is Tucson, Arizona.

TTV: What else can you tell me about the Kings Court tour?

BM: We’ve got the dates up so people can check and see when we’ll be through. It’s going to be the first time this many Detroit underground hip hop artists have done a tour together; this has never happened. It’s always been something that we’ve all envisioned before because there’s so much talent and good music comin’ out of the hip hop scene in Detroit, so it should be fun. I wish I could’ve brought my band and did more rapping on my set but it’ll still have fun with just doing a beat set because I never really get a chance to do that that either. It should be dope.

TTV: You’ve talked in other interviews about moving around quite a bit, other than for the tour. Your latest project was done in Dallas. Are you still moving around?

BM: I’m actually in LA right now. I’ll be out here for a little while working. So yeah this is where I’m at right now.

TTV: I was in Detroit twice this past year actually and both times was looking for a good record store. Where is your favorite place to crate dig in Detroit?

BM: In Detroit? Man that’s kind of a hard. Each store kind of specializes in different things and different styles of music—probably Peoples Records. It’s a really good one. They specialize in a lot of rare soul stuff and funk stuff. So, yeah, Peoples is one of the really good ones.

TTV: What did you start out doing your beats on and what do you use today?

BM: Today I use MPC3000 drum machine to program everything, Pro Tools and a few set keyboards and records. That’s mostly the foundation of everything I make. Back in the day when I first started, it was really lo-fi, cheap equipment, you know from some Casio keyboards to really bad sounding drum machines, but I finally got a chance to save up some money when I was younger and buy a professional drum machine. My first drum machine was an MPC 2000XL. More than half of my career was made on that machine. But my last few projects have been on the 3000, which I’m still working on now.

TTV: So, I’ve got to tell you about this petition floating around Tulsa right now. It was created by one of my favorite Tulsa rappers, Derek Clark aka Verse, who’s opening for you. It’s a petition to get a Black Milk beat. Could I read it to you?

BM: (laughs) What? Okay, yeah.

TTV: (Reads the petition)

BM: Wow. That is pretty crazy. That is definitely a first. Wow. I don’t even know how to respond to that. For one, I would have to hear him. Number two, that’s a lot of effort to go out to get a track from me. So, I’ll have to take some time to think about how to deal with that situation. It’s definitely an honor that someone looks at me as a person that they would go that far out of their way to get some of my production or collaboration with me. That’s pretty wild.

TTV: You’ll have to check him out when he opens for you.

BM: Ok cool, definitely.

TTV: What is it about producing that you’ve found the most challenging and what have you done to overcome those challenges?

BM: I don’t know if I would actually call it a challenge. It’s more so a learning process, man, you know you never stop learning. There’s always some new technique or there’s always some new information, at least for me personally. I’m always striving to get better. I’m really like a student—I just like all the greats and learning what makes people respond to certain things musically. So, yeah, it’s a journey. I don’t ever feel like it’s a challenge necessarily in the creative process, but a challenge in the actual industry. The business side of things and the exposure. Trying to get fans, that whole uphill battle.

TTV: In the past, you’ve mentioned wanting to focus more on your production. I know you took a simpler, more stripped-down approach to The Rebellion Sessions. Is there anything else you can tell me about it?

BM: Well it’s pretty simple. Basically, me and the band Nat Turner have been touring so long together and we never had a chance to get in the studio and record some original music. Every time we go to shows, people at the merch table will always ask, “Do you have any music with the band? Do you guys have an album together?” Finally I told everybody that we have to record something. This was last year and now we have The Rebellion Sessions. I feel like the project also makes it official in the perception of “okay, these guys are a real band they actually put together a studio project.” This is the first one and definitely shouldn’t be the last one. I plan on getting back in there and doing something else this year. It should be interesting to see how people respond to it.

TTV: Knowing a little bit about U.S. history, the name Nat Turner and the slave rebellion, was it a goal of yours to convey his spirit in The Rebellion Sessions?

BM: The real Nat Turner and what he did and what he went through was definitely in mind in making the name and some of that like you say “spirit of the rebellion” and going against not only the system that we live in and the government, but different systems like the music industry or a certain mentality that people need to break, it’s more so coming from that place.

TTV: I feel like you accomplished that and so much more with no lyrics.

BM: Yeah it’s all music. We basically went in there and I produced it and gave everyone the direction on each track. It was mostly sitting in the studio and listening to a lot of records and getting ideas from older classic records, albums, and musicians. You might hear a little piece or a little riff and build off that and turn [it] into our own.

TTV: You’ve said you want each of your songs to have a purpose. Do you feel like you’ve accomplished that with this upcoming project?

BM: Yeah, definitely. I feel like the purpose of this project in general is to put out an official studio recording with the band—that was the main purpose—but, each song does have a different story. I might post a blog on how we came up with each one. For the most part, we were having fun. I feel like most my projects have been in-depth and heavy, but this project was more us having fun—exactly how we do when we’re on stage performing. To let loose and let our hair down playing and seeing where the music takes us. I think you will be able to feel and hear that in the music—that these guys are just jamming out and having fun. You can even hear us talking and laughing throughout certain parts of the album. It’s us playing and talking to each other, that’s all it was.

TTV: You’ve worked with a long list of notable artists including Jack White, Danny Brown, and Pete Rock just to name a few. Are there any artists you can think of off the top of your head that you’d like to work with in the future? I know Ali Shaheed Muhammad was hoping for a Dre/Black Milk Collaboration.

BM: Oh wow, you know what? Maybe two years ago I probably did, but these days I’m pretty open to work with almost anybody that has talent and will complement what I do as a producer. It’s not necessarily one person in particular that I got my eye on because there’s so many artists today. There’s so much music out there these days, it’s hard to consume it all. But I’m really open to working with whoever and doing some dope shit.

TTV: Do you have any comment on the current status of Detroit or the Flint water crisis?

BM: There’s still a lot of hardships going on in the city, but I definitely feel like last time I was there was the first time I really felt like I had seen a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel in terms of, okay things might flip around and turn out for the best a few years from now. I was hanging out downtown and I know that a lot of stuff is going on in the inner cities that needs to be taken care of as far as crime and poverty and all that. Hopefully it still keeps its history and the magic that makes Detroit what it is, that’s the main thing I’m concerned about.

TTV: Thank you so much for doing this interview with me.

BM: Thank you, I appreciate it. You’ll be at the show?

TTV: Yes, I will.

BM: Dope, I’ll definitely see you there.

For more from Mary, read her interview with Scarface.