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Friday, September 24, 2010
CD Reviews / New Releases / News CD Review: Black Milk's Album of the Year
Posted By Mike McCray on Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 4:05 PM
The Deal: Detroit producer and MC attempts to back up the bold title of his fourth studio album.
The Good: For an entirely self-produced project, AOTY has range. While some tracks feel like they were ripped directly out of a Dilla instruction manual, others show Black Milk's own touch. There's obviously soul influences but the hints of rock and go-go were very dope surprises. Couple that with the Dilla-esque experimentation that was pulled off without being heavy-handed and there's no issues with how the sound of this album turned out. You would've thought he had The Roots backing him at times, straight up.
Lyrically, Black Milk proved to be everything I loved about him as a featured MC in the past, in long-form. It was all things Detroit without feeling like he was trying to bite Eminem or Slum Village's style. Fellow Detroiters, Royce Da 5'9 ("Deadly Medley"), Danny Brown ("Black and Brown"), Mr. Porter ("Closed Chapter"), were all solid collabs.
The Bad: None really. Lyrics could be tuned out by everything else that's coming at you but that's hardly a reason to complain. Smart move not to OD on the tracks, the album closed where it felt like it should.
The Verdict: Underground heads will say, "I told you so." Newcomers will go search out more but the mainstream may not even notice. Still a very, very dope release.
INFO
Fat Beats; Release date: Sept. 14, 2010
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