Chances are that if you have heard any hip hop in the last few years you might have heard about Black Milk. Now I wouldnt know because I suck at probability, I mean geez, math is supposed to make sense, probability sucks tit(s). Back to what we came to now (dundundududduuunnun). Detroit producer Black Milk has been an underdog in Hip Hop for the last 7 years, producing stuff for people like Slum Village, Phat Kat and Guilty Simpson… and Lloyd Banks… hmmm…

I’m very dissapointed in myself for not bringing this to the table before, released in late october. One of the absolute most skillful producers of our time, in the leauge with Dilla & Pete Rock. Nothing nostalgic or anything, just good contemporary hip hop, if the art is going somewhere different, this is the preferable direction. Unconventional, original and real (notice: “turn it up” sticker).

Starts off hard, real hard, ‘Long Story Short’ one of the strongest songs on the album. A hookless autobiography, a good example of splendid rapping and even better production. Dwele hums a little bit on the end, enough to be featured though. Few weak tracks, one being ‘Hold it Down’, gets boring and not the best way to rap for Milk. Further we have the oh so soulful song, ‘Without U’, probably shouldn’t say this, but this is the kind we wanted the College Dropout Kanye to be making now, but he’s not. Under this category does ‘Loosing Out’ fall too. It features Royce Da 5′9′, an artists I’ve never gotten into, he does an ok job on this.

Later we have the all-star track ‘The Matrix’ feauring Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price plus some scratching business by DJ Premier. A solid track, though doesn’t appeal to me like some of the other tracks on this joint do. Bottom line is that this album is a good mix of production you might have expected to hear on tracks of other artists, anything from Jay-Z (’Hell Yeah’), The Roots (’Bond 4 Life’) to Dabrye (’Tronic Summer’).

An outstanding album, one of the very better of this year at least. Offers great quality and variety, whatever kind of hip hop you’re into you will find some you like on this one. Another must-have, that is of course if you’re not a SUCKAH.

Favorite songs: Long Story Short, Loosing out, Overdose, Tronic Summer