Madeleine Byrne speaks with Black Milk about his development as an engineer, live bands versus sampling, and his approach to racial issues.

The Motor City producer opens up about his new album. no longer feeling like a new artist, his long term vision, and just how he feels when every damn review and write-up feels the need to mention James Yancey.

Zilla Rocca was there, you’re a square, y’all do not compare The greatness of Black Milk’s No Poison No Paradise LP was his approach as an emcee. The Dirty District MPC slapper has paid the bills close to a decade thanks to his J Dilla and Slum Village cosigned beats, but Black Milk The Rapper […]

We probably needed House Shoes and Hex Murda for ultimate last rites authority on all matters pertaining to the D, but the trio of Black Milk, Quelle Chris, and Denmark Vessey are among the best musicians that Detroit has produced over the last half decade. Knowledge was brought in via carrier pigeon and dispersed via […]

If you had pegged Black Milk as being a permanent Dilla disciple, you should probably reevaluate things. He deserved the comparisons to have been deaded a few years ago, but now they seem especially off-base. The leaked tracks from No Poison No Paradise are like Halloween science-fiction psychedelic theme music. As though they were scripted […]

Tosten Burks is lusher than you ever expect. It’s as easy to make fun of Black Milk for so much Dilla apery over the years as it is to tease anyone who is so directly a product of his or her influences. Joey Bada$$ isn’t just like a golden age five elements snob, he is […]

Detroit native Black Milk has been an active producer/rapper since 2002 as a member of hip-hop collective Slum Village. Production-wise, Black’s modus operandi can be described as Dilla-esque, but he doesn’t really imitate the late legend as much as utilize Dilla’s crate-digging approach to composition as a vantage point, which then gives Black an opportunity […]

Tosten Burks is exempt from taking Detroit 101 because he passed the AP Detroit exam in high school. This is hip-hop that makes people shout out “this is hip-hop.” A posse cut whose participants actually sound like they’re all members of the same posse. Internal rhyme after internal rhyme of cocksure, gun-cock rhythm turns of […]

Danny Brown does too many drugs to really be the rap Frank Zappa, nor does he sport so lustrous a mustache. Then again, they both have contrarian natures, a love of groupies, and berserk intensity. I guess the tiebreaker is where the Hybrid stands on hippies. Due to the nimble-fingered flock of thieves and charlatans […]

Jonah Bromwich prefers Black Milk to Strawberry Quik. But he prefers Bosco above all else. It takes a lot of balls to name your album, Album of the Year. Do you think you succeeded in what you wanted to do? Yeah, I think I accomplished what I wanted to do. Saying that my album was […]