thaFormula.com - How long after you started making beats did you get your first real production break?

Black Milk - It took about a year before I came in contact with Slum Village.  Slum Village was my first real artist that I produced for as far as having a major deal at the time.  When I finally met up with them in 2002 I started working with them on the “Trinity” album.

thaFormula.com - So after that you and Young RJ (BR Gunnas) did 11 of the 13 tracks on Slum's “Detroit Deli” LP.  How did it come about that you guys were chosen to basically do the whole album?

Black Milk -  It really wasn’t that they chose us.  It was a situation where after the “Trinity” album Wajeed, he got a lot of buzz off that “Trinity” album cause he did a nice amount of the beats.  So he went off and did his thing and started the Platinum Pied Pipers thing which is doing good.  Kareem Riggins was doing his thing with Common.  So it was like, the two cats that did the bulk of the “Trinity” album was real busy after that.  So it wasn’t nobody left but me and Young RJ just sittin’ there.  So Slum was like “okay lets do it, lets make it happen.”  We were still fresh at the time.  We were still trying to find our own sound and we still weren’t on a veterans level like a (J) Dilla. So we were still fresh on the beats but we still made it happen.  “Detroit Deli” was a nice solid album.  The pressure was there but it wasn’t ‘cause Slum was trying to create a new sound that was different from Dilla but still dope music.  So we just kept mastering our craft doing these beats and eventually after we did the “Deli” album and came out with the last Slum self-titled album, which was great you know but the only downfall was that it didn’t get pushed like it should have label wise, so that was the only downfall of that album.  If it would have got pushed like “Detroit Deli” or “Trinity” where everyone knew it was out and got a chance to hear it, I think we would have got our accolades ‘cause that was a real dope album.  

thaFormula.com - How much did doing all that with Slum help you as an artist?

Black Milk - I think it helped me personally as a producer just because I feel like I never would have had that pressure of T3 on our backs like “you all got to come with it.”  They are used to havin’ the greatest producer of all time in their group so he wasn’t settlin’ for less on the beats.  So that was pressure within itself from the cats in the group so that really helped me.  I think today if I worked with any other group first, I don’t know how my beats would be sounding right now because I don’t think that pressure would have been there.

thaFormula.com - What made you decide that you wanted to rhyme and produce?

Black Milk - I was rhymin' before I was doing beats.  I was rappin' and writing lyrics.  Then I just took to the tracks.  I was always been rhymin’ though.  But I love creating music.  I love messing with sounds.  I love flippin’ samples, I love drums, I love the production part of it so I will always pick the producers side because I love making tracks.

thaFormula.com - Now you put out your first solo project “Sounds of The City” in 2005 on your own label.  What made you do the solo thing?

Black Milk - That project took about 3 months to put together.  It really wasn’t an album.  It was more so a mixtape/compilation.  A lot of people still think it was an album.  The album I’m gonna be putting out is gonna be an album.  “Sounds of the City” was something I wanted to do because I was straying away from the BR Gunna thing because we had a whole BR Gunna album that was supposed to have dropped but it was just a crazy situation where it didn’t come out so I was at a point where i wasn’t signed to anybody, I was a free agent all that time with Slum.  So I just said “I’m gonna do a quick little project, get the people that I think is dope in Detroit MC wise and them have them rap over some tracks and put it out in the streets.”  Then it just spread everywhere man.  It was just a Detroit thing but it just kind of spread all over the place.  People are still checkin’ for it.

thaFormula.com - How did you end up hooking up with Fat Beats and what exactly is the “Broken Wax” EP about?

Black Milk - After the buzz started getting out there a little more for the “Sound of the City” CD, they came to me.  They contacted me and told me they were feeling what I was doing.  They wanted to see if I was in any type of situation.  They said “if your not, we’re trying to see what’s up with you being down with Fat Beats.”  So you know we did the whole label thing back and forth for months and months on in and finally cam to a certain agreement and that’s how it went.  The “Broken Wax” EP is kind of a continuation of “Sound of the City.”  The sound on “Broken Wax” is still similar to what “Sound of the City” is.  It’s just grimy raw looped up samples and im’ rappin’.  As a matter of fact I took 2 songs off of “Sound of the City” and put it on “Broken Wax” just because none of those songs that was on “Sound of the City” never came out on vinyl and that was a problem I had.  So I put that on there.  The EP is just something to hold people over until the album ‘cause I didn’t have nothing that had came out this year for me, so I said “let me throw a little EP out.”  It’s on iTunes and vinyl for the DJ’s and hopefully it can hold them over ‘til March when the album drops.  The album is also with Fat Beats.  It’s called "Popular Demand."  It's droppin’ on March 13th.

thaFormula.com - Whats the status with BR Gunna nowadays?

Black Milk - We cool.  We had a whole album that was supposed to have come out, and at the time BR Gunna was me, RJ and the main rapper of the group Fat Ray.  So we had a whole album laid out that didn’t come out for whatever reason.  I felt like a i couldn’t wait too much longer.  I wasn’t signed to nobody so I was like “I’m about to put out my own project.”  So I put out “Sounds of the City” and I had to try to get my solo buzz up.  People were feeling us from Slum but people didn’t know who Black Milk was.  They knew the music but a lot of people don’t read credits.  So I had to put something out here to let people know what my music is since we weren’t coming out with an album and that’s how it went.  I still work with Fat Ray all the time.  I’m still trying to work on a solo project with him.  But the whole BR Gunna thing, hopefully we might do something in the future.  

thaFormula.com - What do you sample from the most?

Black Milk - My main thing is the MPC and records.  I use the MPC 2000XL, a lot of old records, keyboards and I basically get in there and listen to the wax ‘til I hear something and loop it on up in the machine and chop it up. I also listen to Break Beat albums too.  I’m trying to get a little more into live instrumentation.  Like bringing in live musicians to play over some of these samples and redo some of these samples.  I’ll tell you the truth if I knew my album was gonna be droppin’ next year, I would have did a little more live instrumentation on my record, but you know crazy shit happened so I didn’t get a chance to do it.  But on the record after this one, it will be a little more live instruments and musicians coming in. Sometimes it gives it a different feel or fuller feel, because Hip-Hop is kind of changing right now production wise so you got to keep up but still do what you do.  That’s where I’m at with it right now.  But it’s all in how you do it.  I’m not gonna take it there and make it sound watered down.  We started messing with live instrumentation on the last record.  It was a few songs on there where we brought live musicians in.  One was a Willie Hutch sample. We flipped the horn and brought a live horn player in, brought a live drummer in and guitar player in and it still sounded like some real Hip-Hop shit.  There was another joint on there called “Call Me” which I chopped up this Isley Brothers sample "Footsteps in the Dark."  We just added a little live guitar on top of it to give it a little extra feel.  It just depends on how you do it and the person that’s doing it.  Some people can’t pull it off, but it is going there.  You can see how Jay-Z did it with "Show Me What You Got" with the crazy live drums and the horns.  It’s time to take it there instead of having that choppy programmed sound, which is cool but you don’t want to keep doing that for the rest of your career, just choppin’ up soul records. Sometimes you got to change.

thaFormula.com - Are you in the studio making beats 24/7 or only when your feelin' it?

Black Milk - Right now the majority of my time is in the lab, whether I’m at the crib with it, a pre-production setup at the crib or if I’m at the big studio, I’m always doing music a majority of the day.  Especially when im working with people that are working on certain projects and certain artists that are about to drop.  After you’re done with one artist it seems like here comes another artist that wants to do a project.  It keeps going so I’m constantly doing music.

thaFormula.com - Are you a perfectionist when it comes to making beats man or the type to just make the track and keep it movin’ to the next?

Black Milk - I wouldn’t say im a perfectionist where I’m gonna sit there and EQ a snare for a whole day.  I more so go off the feel.  If whatever I just programmed in the machine feels good, then I’m rollin’ with it.  There are some people that go by the book like “you got to do it this way.”  I don’t really go off that.  I’m not gonna put out anything wack, so if it don’t sound good I ain’t putting it out.  Sometimes I’ll leave the MP on for 3 days ‘cause sometimes certain beats do take a few days to perfect.  You have to find the right drums for it or a certain sample or the right atmosphere for certain beats.

thaFormula.com – Describe the difference between a “beat maker” and a producer and which you consider yourself.

Black Milk - I consider myself a producer.  The “beat maker” is someone who knocks out the beat and leaves the studio.  A producer actually will sit there with the artist and make sure the artist is going in the right direction on these beats and make sure the hook is right.  Like with Slum I will be in there working with them.  It depends also on what artist you work with.  Some already have their writers like the Pharoahe Monch track I worked on, I was in the “beat maker” mode.  I sat in the studio and kicked with him but I let him do his thing and when I came back it was crazy.  At the same time I wouldn’t let anyone do anything wack over one of my tracks.  I knew Pharoahe was gonna come correct though.  

thaFormula.com - So I hear you got a couple of tracks on Pharoahe’s album, that must be big for you…

Black Milk - Yeah that felt real huge for me.  It’s basically Pharoahe Monch's comeback album.  He only did one solo album, but its like “wow, I’m a part of it.” To the lyricists all over he’s one of the top so for me to be working with him is real dope.

thaFormula.com - Now you also did a track for Lloyd Banks right?

Black Milk - Yeah, I was in contact with G-Unit sending them beats back & forth.  I still send them beats.  But they had picked one of the tracks for Lloyd.  He cut a song but the song didn’t make his album.  He did a diss record over the track I gave him.  So the label basically told them that that song wasn’t gonna be on the album cause the label wasn’t trying to take it there. Jimmy (Iovine) and Interscope didn’t wanna stir up that beef shit no more so it was just my luck.  It’s cool though man.  It would have been huge for me but I still got a nice little buzz just for the fact t hat he did record over one of my records.  Plus he shouted me out in a couple of interviews so it was all good.  I mean I got a buzz but I’m still doing the same thing, sending beats out and grinding trying to get these placements.  Right now I’m working with Guilty Simpson, working on the new Slum album and Pharoahe just hit me up a few weeks ago asking for more beats.  Just trying to stay busy.

thaFormula.com - Have things been good for you financially lately?

Black Milk - Yeah its cool.  The Fat Beats deal was nice and the money for the different little tracks, its been cool.  The paper is stacking a little more.  I just got to stay on my hustle so it can stay stackin’.  I’m trying to stay focused.  I mean it always helps when you produce for an artist that is known or is on a major label, but to say you cant live comfortable in the underground is a lie.  But I’m not just a producer so I don’t have to depend on just making beats and hoping somebody buys my beats.  I can put out my own projects cause I rap too, so there’s always two or three different avenues I can take to live comfortably.  I don’t even know if I would even wanna be on a major the way the industry is looking right now and a lot of people are not really selling records.  The only people that are moving units are the Beyonce’s and the Justin's. If you’re not a Pop artist you’re really only gonna sell at the most one to two-hundred thousand albums.  To be on a major and do those type of numbers, your probably damn near gonna get dropped.  So if I can do that on an underground level, I’m killin’ them.   Plus if I’m making a certain amount of dollars off of each unit, it’s cool.  It just depends on the type of fan base you got.  Right now im in the position where im trying to build my fan base to a certain number so that when I put out my record and when I do my shows and tours, I got a fan base that is behind me.  That’s my whole goal right now.  I don’t have to wanna depend on either a major or independent cause if I got a nice size fan base I can always eat independently and live comfortable.

thaFormula.com - I saw a video clip of you in the basement working on beats.  What I wanna know is what’s the secret weapon that you said was upstairs?

Black Milk - (Laughs) It wouldn't be a secret if I put it out there.  But you know I got a couple of techniques and a couple of notes that I write down that I keep in the cut and a couple pieces of equipment that I have that I know will get the job done for whatever sound that I'm working on.  That’s my thing right now.  I’ve been trying to set up my studio so I can just do whatever I’m hearing in my head.  That’s what I’m trying to accomplish man ‘cause whatever im hearing in my head, next time I’ll know exactly where to go, what records to go to, what equipment to use and that’s my thing right now.  But I can’t even put my secret weapon out there.

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