thaFormula.com - Let's start off with the "Caltroit" project you're working on with Bishop Lamont, what was the first track you guys laid down?

Black Milk - The first track we recorded for "Caltroit" was the title track. We leaked out that joint.

thaFormula.com - Did it surprise you how good the first track you guys recorded came out?

Black Milk - Nah. My nigga Bishop, he's crazy with the rhymes so I knew he was gonna bless it and I came off, I did my thing. It wasn't hard man to do dope music especially when you're working with a good artist. But that's not even the craziest record we got. That's just like a little taste of what's to come from the "Caltroit" project.

thaFormula.com - Now when you leaked the "Caltroit" track, were you surprised at the nice little buzz it got?

Black Milk - Me personally I knew the track was dope but it was kind of a different sound then what people are used to hearing me do normally so I didn't know if that would throw them off a little bit when they hear me coming with a beat that is kind of not what I do usually. But like I said, people were feeling it so I said "okay if you are all feeling this then your gonna love the other records we got." Because like I said, that's just a teaser of what we got to come on the album.

thaFormula.com - Did it feel good to hear people say that the track didn't sound like a Black Milk track and is that what you wanted?

Black Milk - Yeah man because that's the whole thing. When people love you for one sound then they want you to stick to that one sound for a long time, but you know as an artist and I know me personally, I like to change up my sound with each different artist I'm working with and each different album I'm working on. So it was good for me to see that people heard I was doing something different, but it was still dope to them. They wasn't like "nah Black is trying to come with another sound and shit is wack." They didn't do that so I knew I was on the right path with it. When I'm at home I do all different kinds of beats. Especially when I'm trying to make placements on different types of artists albums. So I got my commercial batch over here, I got my underground sounding type of beats over here, and I've got my weird shit over here. So I just mix it up.

thaFormula.com - Now I know you said that for the "Caltroit" project, the beats are gonna be a little more polished, what exactly does that mean?

Black Milk - A more polished sound means that the music will be able to appeal to a more broad audience. It might be actually like radio friendly or commercial friendly. So when I said the music was gonna be a little more polished for "Caltroit" uh, and you know we are gonna have our rugged you know just uncut, raw, dirty joints on the album but you are still gonna see another side of my production where if I wanted to go into the commercial world, I could do it and here is the example of what I could do when I'm some mainstream shit or trying to do the radio shit. I can do the best of both worlds with no limit and that's all I'm trying to show people with the different albums that I'm producing right now. There is no limit to what I can do. So you can't put me in a box. But at the same time when I do give you a polished sound, I'm still gonna keep certain elements in the music that makes you love what you loved about my beats in the beginning. I'm gonna still have the drums smacking and the big snares and the hard punchy kicks. If I sample something, I'm still gonna chop and sample a certain way so its still gonna have a Black Milk feel. But it's just gonna be able to appeal to a broader audience.

thaFormula.com - At this point in your career would you say that you are still in an experimental stage when it comes to your sound? Do you think you have reached the point yet where you can say that you have a trademark sound?

Black Milk - I wouldn't say I really have a signature sound yet. Only thing that I know is that I give my most on every record that I produce or any beat that I do, my drums is always hittin' a certain way, but I use different drums. I don't use the same drums all the time. But I couldn't even say what my signature sound is, I don't think I have one yet because like I said I'm trying to do a bunch of different sounds at this point. Especially when you're working with a lot of different artists, you automatically are going to cater to their sound and the way that artist raps or the way that artist sings. So you are gonna cater to their sound anyway. Like I said, I couldn't see myself doing the same sound for more then a year. That's how much I get inspired. I learn different stuff about music all the time. I'm still growing as a producer and as a musician so I'm always learning something new almost every other day. Every week I'm finding out some element to make my music sound better.

thaFormula.com - Do you think that you are finally starting to shake the Jay Dee comparison and that people are now starting to look at you as just Black Milk?

Black Milk - I think that it's kind of fading away just because I've been putting out a lot of different music lately and people who have been hearing the growth even after I put out my album "Popular Demand." I've been leaking just random records on the Internet and just little beat snippets just to let the people hear where I'm going with the music so they will know that I'm not just stuck in that one box or in that one place where my album was. So yeah I think that now that title is kind of fading away and I'm happy for that because I never liked it in the beginning anyways but it's a compliment for anyone to even think I could be on Dilla's level. I look at his techniques and his methods of how he used to make beats and I think he's the greatest to do it. So for someone to say I could be even close to that level is great for me. But at the same time, I'm not here to do his style or try to fill that void. I'm not here for that but I think people see me coming into my own so its all good.

thaFormula.com - So will the "Caltroit" album have a more West Coast feel to it? 

Black Milk - Nah, it's gonna be a mixture. It's called "Caltroit." Cali artists, Cali producers, Detroit artists and me doing the production side so its gonna be mixed up. We think we have our second single right now. It's me, Guilty Simpson, Bishop Lamont and Busta Rhymes and that might be the second single off of the record and that's more so like a club record. But it's not really on no West Coast shit. Its gonna be a mixture of the Cali sound and the Detroit sound. We've got records with my man Elzhi, Phat Kat, Slum and on the Cali side we got records from my man Alchemist, Ras Kass is jumping on this, we got Royce Da 5'9 from the Detroit side. So you will all get the best of both worlds.

thaFormula.com - So originally it was gonna be a mix tape/street album, but now that you guys got a buzz going for this, what is the plan now?

Black Milk - The plan has changed a little bit. We was planning on getting it out this summer, but it seems like we are probably gonna have to push it back a little bit to like probably September or November just because it's a lot of cats that are trying to get on it. The buzz has just been growing. A lot of cats out on the West Coast have been hollering at Bishop trying to be a part of it and cats out here in the "D" have been getting at me trying to be a part of it. So me and Bishop came with the idea to do like basically a side project which is still "Caltroit" but its gonna be called "Caltroit Metropolis" where we have the up and coming artists and songs that didn't make the actual "Caltroit" album on there. I guess you could say like a mix tape and it's gonna be called "Caltroit Metropolis" and that's gonna be just something for the underground heads. We looked at is like there is a lot of up and coming talent and there is so many cats that should be a part of this movement. Like we had to take into consideration that we are really putting a movement together with the West Coast and the Midwest, but at the same time, we still had to change this up because we had to put some East Coast artists on it now. So the concept is still "Caltroit," but we got Busta coming in, and we're trying to get Lord finesse to come in. So we got a few cats out on the East that we are gonna sprinkle on it just because we are showin' love to the East coast too. But it's more Detroit and California artists. "Caltroit" is a movement that we are trying to push. Just trying to get artists together that are making dope shit. Whether they are up and coming or they are major artists. Putting them all on one project and everybody getting exposure and everybody getting shown love. Like I said from the mainstream all the way to the underground you are gonna get just a variety of just different types of music man and everybody's getting shine.

thaFormula.com - So with the buzz for this project getting bigger, are you guys gonna try and turn this into a label release?

Black Milk - Well let me clear this up right now and make it very clear. "Caltroit" is now gonna be an album. It's gonna be like 13 to 14 songs, but the "Caltroit Metropolis" side project is gonna be all the stuff that didn't make the album plus just artists that we wanted to be a part of it. So that will probably be up to 20 records. We haven't made it official who is gonna put the actual album out because it has been buzzing a lot so we have people that are interested in putting the record out, but we are trying to make sure that it is put out proper. We just don't want to try and do it on some bootleg shit where we don't get it put out the right way and the people are not able to get it. So we're trying to make sure it's put out right and everybody gets their shine. It just kind of grew into something bigger man. We've been working on this project for a minute now. We had to put it to the side for a little bit just because I was doing my album thing with "Popular Demand" and Bishop was doing his thing with his actual solo project so we had to put it to the side for a minute. So that's another reason why it got postponed and pushed back. But now that my album is out I have a little more time to focus in on it and make sure my record is right and Bishop has time to focus in on it too so that's what we're doing as of right now, just trying to finish it up.

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