Black Milk with Nat Turner @ Vk*

“Bottles to the good life, no more hood life”
—— Black Milk, Bounce ——
Detroit, Michigan, is a super city that brought us gems such as The Temptations, The Supremes, The Stooges, Funkadelic, Milt Jackson, Slim Gaillard, Aretha Franklin, Yusef Lateef, J Dilla, The White Stripes, Eminem and Karriem Riggins and although many of them have long passed, the city is still a continuous life-giver to new talents, as we’ve seen lately with the emergence of acts such as Danny Brown, Clear Soul Forces or rebirth itself with the third (or is it the fourth?) coming of Slum Village. It is also the city
that gave birth to Curtis Cross, also known as Black Milk, some thirty years ago.

As Motor City gets through every turmoil imaginable, it can peacefully rely on its artists to represent it the best way possible -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UveTqOf1ewQ[/youtube

On No Poison, No Paradise, Black Milk gets even more introspective as he did before, as heard on 'Album of the Year' as he opens up on Interpret Sabotage about his childhood on the streets of Detroit. Just like the album, it is a city of conflict. Of blue and red pills. Of digital and analog. Of roads that can be taken forever, before being switched up for better or worse ones.

The cover of the album is dark, inspired by the ones Georges Clinton used to make and filled with illustrations of various parts of lyrics of the songs, songs that are sometimes as dark as the cover.

With Deion’s House, the only song of the album that was mainly produced by Will Sessions, the story uncovers itself as we learn of the young prankster who used to wait for his friend Sonny at Deion’s house,
clothes covered by marijuana smoke, clearly a bad influence on Sonny whose religious parents tried to shield from every poison running in the streets. The details of the story can only make one ponder whether Black Milk was as candid on that track as he had been on Distortion, the song that went over the events that had impacted the MC during the year 2009. The structure and the flow of the rhymes make it all feel like a tale, which it actually is -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBNpwFPVo1Y

The main character of No Poison, No Paradise, is a young cat named Sonny, whose story is partially influenced by Black Milk’s life, and by the lives of the people whose paths had crossed his at some point of his journey. At least, that’s what he says. It is a story that begins on the second song until the end of the album, and which is given a proper end with Poison, a bonus track available on iTunes -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I66vZwK4qzE

As the songs succeeds themselves, the story reveals itself to be a long dream, in which Sonny sees images of past and present, mistakes and success — long story short, images of his life.

The lyrics have been crafted with essential care, and you can feel that the rapper is not joking when he talks about working days without hours. When Sonny’s dreams comes in, though, the producer takes place. Featuring Grammy award winners Dwele and Robert Glasper Jr., the song is an instrumental journey that embarks the listener on a travel filled with musical subtleties that will leave him wondering hazily.

Quite a dream in retrospect. As Sonny wakes up, the gospel sampled song, filled with its proper amount of voices, brings us back to the Popular Demand days. Of the soul infused tracks that put the young Curtis in the vicinity of geniuses of the likes of Slum Village. Then comes that hint of innovation, as Sunday leaves its place to Monday and as a new break signature emerges out of Black Milk’s style. Puritan Ave, with its fusion jazz sampled break, only confirms it: if there were to be a turning point album for Black Milk, it would be No Poison, No Paradise. The ones that came before were only appetisers, as the young producer was still defining the type of sound that he would consider to be his: not as quite soulful as on Popular Demand, not as electric as on Tronic, less conflicted than on Synth or Soul, better engineered than before, No Poison is Black Milk’s new visiting card !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbJa0TrA5w

“Give me the hi-hat groove”
—— Black Milk, Try ! ——

Black Milk, has set himself up with the goal to produce music that will have an everlasting effect on the people it reaches. Music that will be played along the years, rediscovered with each new decade, appreciated anew. Pure music.

On whether or not the young rapper has reached his goal, one can only ponder. But no one would be able
to deny the growth of the man who gave birth to Sound of the City, back in 2005.

Especially after having seen him perform live, as I had the chance to do during his 10th stop on his European tour with his band Nat Turner (comprised of Ab, Malik Hunter and Zeb Horton).

Less than a month before, the Vk* had been honoured by the presence of Madlib, also known as Lord Quas, the Beat Kondukta or the Bad Kid. It had been a DJ set of pure magic.

But it had in no way readied me for the experience of seeing Nat Turner live, once again. I had seen them perform once with Black Milk during a show, somewhere in Germany, a few years ago. At that time, they were on tour to present Album of the Year, and their performance had shaken up my soul quite a few times. Standing once again before me, they quietly got in front of their instruments, making themselves hardly seen by the public. Ab got in front of his Roland X7 keys, Malik Hunter took his bass, Zeb Horton found his way through his drum set and the DJ took place behind his decks.

As the first notes hit the waves, the ever elusive public started packing the place and Black Milk appeared on stage, just in time to start making sense of the performance. For it was a performance and it needed its conductor. Indeed, without him, it would have been quite impossible to recognise the songs being played, as Nat Turner delivered its interpretation of Keep going, the song chosen to open up the concert -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYW_GRjlTSc

They kept it up on Welcome (Gotta go) and Try, the songs that followed. Not unlike Oddisee who performed in Brussels a few weeks ago, Black Milk and Nat Turner gave its public a musical performance seldom seen in the realm of Hip-Hop music, as each musician played an essential role in the ensemble, raising its quality by mere show of skills and neat improvisations.

Watching the dynamic they seemed to share onstage,I had no doubt believing the long time they had already spent practising and touring together. Their alchemy had me wondering if the experience wouldn’t be that different of seeing The Roots perform live.

You could feel it as Zeb Horton reproduced the exact drum pattern Black Milk had on his mind when they improvised on Bounce, a song out of his Tronic album.

You could see it as he put himself at the back of the stage so Malik Hunter and Ab could have enough room to kill the break. And surely enough, my body started feeling it as it reacted in unisson with every gorilla-like hits of Horton’s drums. The understanding of listening to a somewhat other kind of Hip-Hop seemed unanimous and the feeling of happiness it brought seemed shared by all, including that one girl who had never heard of Black Milk before I managed to bring her along for the ride -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz1W_NHGewg[/youtube

And what a ride it was. I couldn’t honestly tell how long the show had lasted, even though I was frenetically writing down the names of every song played that I had managed to recognise. I still remember the last songs played, Deadly Medley, Losing Out, Distortion, The Matrix and Ring the Alarm, probably because I had never heard of an encore that lasted that long. As the show finished, my ears were still ringing as I took a sip of the last beer standing. My mind was still perched on some clouds as I dragged my feet along the long corridors that I had to follow before finally reaching a small room. Inside, probably waiting for me, were the artists. As for what followed, or what the reason of my being there even was, come back in a few -

— written by Huru, for Da Bluefunk District / Interview by Huru and BeatChronic

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