Chop Shop Podcast – Free Hip Hop Music

Review: Tronic – Black Milk

Lets kick this review off with one simple fact – Black Milk is the shit. Although this reviewer isn’t really one for sentiment, if I was going to go all stannish over any artist in today’s Hip-Hop scene it would be Detriot’s finest beatmaker Black Milk. Along with people like Blue Sky, Black Death, these artists are essential to the well being of Hip-Hop because they are prolific, releasing whole albums of quality beats within months of each other. For example, Tronic is just one of many Detriot releases largely reliant on Black Milk’s beats – note the start of year Detriot/west coast collab Caltriot, Elzhi’s The Preface, Black Milk/Fat Ray’s The Set Up, plus a number of beats on Invicible, Buff1 and other’s albums. Take Black Milk out of Detriot and it would likely lose its current reputation as Hip-Hop’s most productive city, take him out of Hip-Hop and half of this years dopest albums might have not have happened.

So fine, Black Milk stan reviews Black Milk’s second solo release, loves it, gives it a 5 and tells everyone to buy it twice just in case. Unfortunately though, Tronic is probably one of the weakest releases to come out of Detriot this year. Its almost a shock to listen to the album for the first time and realise that the opening five beats are largely forgettable, and that you have to wait so long for a true Detriot banger. The opening tracks aren’t exactly bad, and its nice to see Black moving further out his comfort zone with the 80’s electro feel of Bounce and Hold It Down, and the use of live instruments on Give The Drummer Sum. However, the former tracks sound like Kanye West Graduation era cast offs, the latter’s beat with the chipmuck vocals and trumpet crescendo sounds cluttered and over the top while Without U comes off as vaguely generic R’n'B. The more epic, piano sampled and string driven Long Short Story is more successful, especially with Black sounding vocally so energetic.

However, its only when Black moves back into familiar territory does Tronic kick off proper. Losing Out is as pure a Black Milk beat your ever going to hear, filled with soul, an unbelievable vigour and the hardest of drums, the only gripe being Black’s  mimicking of Royce’s flow. Hell Yeah and its grimy abrasive vibe would have fitted in perfectly on Fat Ray/Black Milk’s The Set Up while The Matrix is one of this year’s finest, the perfect beat for the the likes of P Monch to destroy and accompanied by some typically nice cuts by Premo on the hook. What follows is almost Black in laidback mode, beats he probably churns out in his sleep – Tronic Summer, which is left to breath and bereft of verses is some head nodding goodness, while Try and Bond 4 Life add some much needed soul into the LP.

Maybe the fact that The Matrix is the finest moment of the album hints at its main flaw – Black Milk as a vocalist. There is little doubt that he has improved signifcanlty, even from his debut Popular Demand, as an MC and lyricist. The cringeworthy punchlines are laregly gone, replaced by all round tighter lyrics but you struggle to get a real sense of personailty from the vocals, an idea of who Black Milk is or what he is about in an way that you get with his production. Put simply, he isn’t, and never will be, as clever or imaginative as lyricist as Elzhi is, nor will he have a flow as distincitve as Royce or Monch. Nothing wrong with that as such, but most listeners need to have more then just dope beats to stay interested. Maybe Tronic would have worked better if Black Milk accepted his limitations as an MC, kept his verses to the minimum, brought in more top class MCs (and he has worked with shitloads of them) or made more tracks purely instrumental.

A final problem is that the sense of continuity on Popular Demand or The Set Up is largely missing on Tronic. The experimentation, the mix of R’n'B, 80’s electronic samples and Detriot bangers is admirable but ultimately makes the album sound like a collection of tracks, missing a core idea or sound. At the same time, the use of live instruments (not the first time for Black Mlik of course) on tracks like Give The Drummer Sum and Bond 4 Life is the kind of thing that more producers should make use of, while Black Milk always excels at developing his sound over the one track, always changing it up rather then staying to the same repetitive drums, bass and sample from start to finish. What would be interesting in the future is a completely instrumental Black Milk album with longer, more challenging 7-10 minute tracks, ideas and sounds developed more and more over the track. Although regurly spoken along with Dilla, the comparison seems ather lazy with regards to Tronic – Jay Dee always sounded more leftfield and experimental then Black Milk, with his off key drums and abstract ‘how did he make that???’ textures and sounds. Maybe in the future, Black could try and plug more into the rarely obvious and always curious sounds of his mentor.

To conclude, it should be made clear that Tronic isn’t a bad album, and particurly for those who haven’t listened to much of Black Milk’s earlier stuff, then Tronic is likely to impress. Simply enough, Black Milk doesn’t really make bad beats, and even if a lot of the beats here are Black Milk in cruise control, they are still superior to most Hip-Hop producer’s work. What holds the album back is that it doesn’t really flow well enough together as Popular Demand did, nor is Black Milk really a strong or interesting enough voice to hold your attention from beginning to end. Such are the now high expectations that Black Milk has built up, we expect a solo masterpiece from him that Tronic just isn’t. Well worth a download/pruchase then, but this reviewer will still go on waiting patiently for that one dominant solo release that Black Milk is certianly capable of.

Rating: 3/5