Black Milk: The Young Veteran

Every month, Noisey's Rap Parties provide you with a killer show with our favorite rappers. While we've already collaborated with household favorites like Freddie Gibbs, IamSu! and Action Bronson, next month we are proud to announce that on Wednesday, October 9th, Detroit's Black Milk will be headlining the bill at Santos Party House, alongside Black Dave, Doppelgangaz, Quelle, and DJ Sober. Get your tickets here.

Do not call Black Milk old.

Sure, the Detroit-based independent musician has quietly spent the past decade establishing himself as one of the most prolific producers and rappers in the game, but dude is still only 30 years old. So, again, do not call him old.

"I feel like a veteran," he says through a laugh, "but I am not old."

Rising in popularity during the time of J Dilla and Slum Village, Black prides himself in his experimental approach to hip-hop, but one that's still rooted in tradition. On his upcoming album No Poison No Paradise, out October 15th, he taps into some weird, choppy, fluttering jazz fusion that sounds a bit like if he sprinted to the top of a mountain and high-fived Miled Davis. On top of that, the record features guest spots from Black Thought, Dwele, and Robert Glasper.

While preparing for a show in Santa Barbara earlier this week, I chatted with Black over the phone about the upcoming album, the way Detroit is perceived by the rest of the country, and what it's like to watch Miley Cyrus rap.

How do you feel about the upcoming record? I know that's a big question.
This time around, I feel pretty calm, pretty laid back about this particular release, you know? The excitement is still there and I'm excited for people to hear it, but maybe because I've put out a number of projects over the past few years that now I'm in a position in my career where I have a certain calmness. A certain confidence I have in my music—the energy is not the same as when you first started out. It's still a good energy, and I like being out on stage, letting people hear the new music, but there's a certain thing that makes it a little different, you know what I'm saying? I kind of feel like a veteran, but I don't like saying that because I don't want to come across like I'm old. Because I'm not old. [Laughs.]

The music this town around is a continuation of all three of my solo albums. You get some of the energy from all of those projects, whether it's the live instrumentation, the uptempo soul or electronic stuff. I feel like that's where it is. I mastered those certain things about my style I've been doing over the years. This album is showcasing that. It's a little more polished up this time around. There's a certain level of confidence, you know what I'm saying?

With your own sound, how do you see yourself fitting on the wildly diverse hip-hop spectrum?
It's hard to put into words. All I can say is I'm me, you know? That makes me different than anybody else. I've never tried to keep up with what's modern or whatever flow is hot or whatever beats are hot or whatever. I've always been confident and do what I want to do and how I want to do it, musically. That's the best way I can answer that. I never try to follow trends. That's how I've stayed in my own lane. You say there's a certain Black Milk sound, but to be honest, I don't really even know what that is. I just do music.

Something interesting about your music is that there's such a heavy experimental jazz influence, which is fairly uncommon in rap right now.
Yeah. I've heard a few people mention that, that they can hear a touch of jazz influence on the new album.

Well, there's "Perfected on Puritan Ave.," which sounds kind of like a
Yeah. That's definitely one of the more in your face jazz influenced ones. But I didn't really set out to do that specifically when I did the album. It just kind of happened. I felt like it'd be cool if I switched up some things, and went in this direction and then this direction, but when it comes with experimentation with sounds and production, you know, that's a fine line between an experiment going good, and an experiment going really, really bad. [Laughs.]

How do you identify that line?
Sometimes you don't know. You have to see the response from the people. Sometimes, you just like it. But I don't ever try to go experimental just to be experimental. That shit is wack to me. You're so gung ho on being perceived as an artist that's doing something different that you end up doing wack shit. I'm into experimental stuff that's just good, you know? When I make music in different territories, I try to listen to certain projects or artists that have touched on the sound I'm going for, but they did it well, so I can know what elements I need to do to pull it off well.

This is a concept record. What do you feel concept records allow you to accomplish as an artist?
Well, with this one, I didn't start off with the intent of doing a concept album. But the way I work, everything starts off with the production, start off with the beats, and the beats tell me where to go lyrically. So for whatever reason, the first batch of beats I put together for this project, they were telling a story on their own, before I put one lyric down. So when I decided to start writing lyrics for the songs, it just came out like that and I looked up and noticed that first four or five songs linked together and told a story. I didn't even purposefully do it. But after I noticed that, I built off those songs for the rest of the album, making sure it stayed cohesive. I tried to then make a character for these songs, so I could tell my story and other stories.

Is there anything as an artist about which you feel misunderstood?
A lot of people think because you do a particular sound of music, they put you in a certain box and expect you to be a certain type of person in your personal life. That's one of the misconceptions, if you do something with a boom bat element to it or more traditional sound or sample element to it, they assume that's the type of person you are. So that's how I'm trying to balance my career. I'm from the D. From a certain hood, you know what I'm saying? I hang out with a certain type of people. And this is just the kind of music I prefer. When you into the underground and indie hip hop world, they try to put you in a box.

As someone who operates in that "indie hip-hop world," what is it like for you to see the genre get so popular? Like, Miley Cyrus is getting ready to drop a rap album.
I mean, I think it's dope. You know? To see how it's evolved and the styles and flows and the beats. It's cool to sit back and watch it. I'm at a point where I can see it happen right in front of my eyes versus going back, like, five years when I was in the midst of it and I didn't really notice the change. But it's dope to see where it was five years ago to now. I feel like it's in a better place than where it was. For me personally, at least. Especially when it comes to indie artists. We don't really need major labels at this point. You can make a living—a good living—off of being an indie artist because of the internet. That's one of the best things about the industry today. You don't need that major label push.

How do you feel about Detroit's place in the hip-hop world, and how that relates to the current economic depression in the city?
It's incredible. It's been beneficial to the city, no question. The people having, at least, something to be proud of in terms of the artist or who is representing the city. This is the first time you have multiple artists from Detroit who have a pretty big fan base and names are well-known on multiple levels of the industry. It's the first time people are seeing this. In the past, it used to be all Eminem. You only knew Em. And that was it. You had underground hip-hop in Slum Village and J Dilla, but that was it. Now we have cats like Danny, I've been doing my thing for a minute now, Big Sean doing his thing. There's a lot more artists to come from Detroit, too.

How do you see hip-hop evolving in the next five years?
Well, I think there will always be a certain attitude to it. I tell people all the time in regards to Detroit that, no matter how famous you get, because they're from Detroit, they'll always have an underground attitude about them. They feel like they always have to be the best or do better than the next person. I feel that about Em a lot. He never has to write another verse again—he made his history—but you can always tell when Eminem rhymes or gets on a song, it always feels like he's trying to prove himself.

Eric Sundermann is an editor at Noisey. He's on Twitter — @ericsundy