Black Milk - Tronic: Album Review

Release Date: October 28, 2008
Record Label: Fatbeats
Featured Artists: Dwele, Royce Da 5’9", Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, DJ Premier, Colin Munroe, Fat Ray, Melanie Rutherford, AB

Review by: Kas

I would best describe Hip Hop as stagnate right now. A whole genre saturated with auto-tuned, alien voiced, sing-song hooks and faux creativity. You can’t even look to your favorite artist to come with anything worth the customary, conformational, Hip Hop head-nod right now. Enter Black Milk’s Tronic to semi-crash this musical strip club year and get up on da main stage to make the people say “yeah!”

The title of the album mos-def describes what you will hear once you press IPod on your IPhone. WARNING: This is not Sound of the City and nowhere near what you heard on Popular Demand. We have taken-off from the skyscrapers of chopped-soul-sample city and landed on a skillfully crafted electronic landscape dotted with lyrical vacation homes. Again… I must reiterate… Sound wise… This is not Sound of the City or Popular Demand. Black has matured as a producer and his sound has progressed to a point where he can soulfully stake his claim to a portion of Hip Hop’s future. Yet at the same time, Tronic is nothing groundbreaking and doesn’t really come with anything to far away from the electronic trend of today’s Hip Hop. When listening to this album, you might think to yourself: “Self… I feel like I have heard this vibe before…” Well, you would be completely within your Hip Hop right to think that maybe J. Dilla (R.I.P.) was looking down over this project. We lost arguably the best Hip Hop producer to ever do it, when Dilla lost his battle with lupus in 2006. But, his impact on Hip Hop lives on through Black Milk and Tronic is a Hip Hop symphonic eulogy in some ways. I have always felt that Black Milk’s production is built from the same frame as Dilla (which he has never denied) and Tronic is a confirmation of this for me. It’s as if he channels Dilla on a few cuts, e.g. Bond 4 Life, Hold It Down, Hell Yeah and Overdose, just to name a few. Though Dilla’s genius will never be duplicated; Black is doing his best to keep that “your favorite producer's, favorite producer” vibe alive and well. Is he the heir? I don’t think so… I believe it is more of him just making good Hip Hop music that we Dilla fans really enjoy.

The futuristic boom-bap beat universe that Milk has constructed is furthermore enhanced with that recognizable, syllable hostage-holding flow we have all become accustomed to coming out the “D.” Detroit is known for their lyrical terrorist, who spit Jihad on Hip Hop for their city and Black brings his vocal bomb laden vest on Tronic. Black Milk is known throughout Hip Hop for his beats, yet I believe he is underrated as an Emcee. Most producers that rhyme in today’s Hip Hop to often come off inexperienced or lazy on the lyrical side. Lyrical laziness has never really been a factor for Black Milk. He proves he is a formidable Emcee on joints like Losing Out, where he is paired with Royce Da 5’9 and The Matrix where he holds his own with Sean Price and Pharoahe Monch.

As you look back on this year in Hip Hop, don’t be so quick to banish 2008 to the auto-tune gamma quadrant of our musical universe. True, good music was hard to locate and didn’t seem to want to make contact with us; if you listened closely, it was still out there. Tronic landed on this planet formally known as Hip Hop in an effort to terraform its martian landscape. Though I’m not sure it fully succeeded, it did make 2008 Hip Hop a little more habitable for me. It was breath of, if not fully fresh air, then 100% oxygen from a rebreather. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and go cop this album. It makes a nice addition to any Hip Hoppa’s library.


The highpoints of the album are:

Give The Drummer Sum: The lead single with dope snares, kicks and an ill Quasimoto influenced hook.

Without U (feat. Colin Munroe): Nice commercial sounding record… Feeling the message of the whole song… Munroe comes correct on the hook, as well… Can you say Matthew Santos on Lupe’s Superstar??? Mos def could hear this one on the radio, TRL, 106 & Park… Blah… Blah… I don’t know if it is the indie label thing or whatever… But, I just don’t understand why records like this don’t get shine???

Hell Yeah: Hard Hip Hop record that Black says originally was a remix to Overdose (HipHopDX Interview)... Drum programming is crazy and has an ill horn hit sample throughout the record that sets the vibe for the lyrical onslaught.

Overdose: Banger!! DJ Dez kills the hook with a M.O.P. sample…

Try: Classic Black Milk… It’s the only record where he utilizes those soul samples that he is known for… Dope record.

The Matrix (feat. Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, & DJ Premier): Another banger! Milk, Price and Premo do their thing and it was really nice to hear Monch finally spit again, instead of all that singing… Yuck!

If I had to say that the album staggers, it would be on one track…. Bounce, but solid word-play makes the record listenable. That’s just my opinion though….

I give Black Milk’s Tronic a 4.5 out of 5

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