Black Milk
Album Of The Year

Written by Dominick. Published: Saturday, October 2, 2010.

Calling your shot is always a tricky thing. If you prophesize great success and manage to deliver you have a chance to cement some serious legend and lore in your name. On the other hand, if you say your about to do something astounding and don’t manage to eek out your promises in full, well…hey, just be prepared for lofty criticisms of your foolhardy arrogance. All of this prologue about self prediction can be directly applied to Detroit emcee Black Milk and more explicitly his fifth official solo release, the brazenly titled Album Of The Year.

I think many in the Hip-Hop world fully expected Milk to give us a classic album this time out. After all, his catalog taken as a whole clearly is solid and with his 3rd LP Popular Demand, he nearly crafted an unforgettable record. True enough he’s got the skill in the form of a serious knack for busting down the boards and as far as producer/MC’s go he’s pretty fair on the mic as well. All of these facts indeed forced many to peg Album Of The Year as their no. 1 overall pick to be the most memorable effort within the culture this 2010…It simply would not be. Despite the indications and even a handful of truly dope cuts Milk can’t say he put forth the best LP of the year.

“365” is a pretty absorbing intro that displays a bunch of features that the entire album holds in bulk. Be ready for a slew of manically constructed and uber funky drum arrangements as well as Milk flexing a more of a amped up type of flow. Things climb further into goodness as the intro gives way to a pure get up and move anthem in “Gotta Go”; a joint that I find to be the prime piece of work on this go round. With the sinister key work cascading majestically against a perfectly selected shaker, a resounding soul clap, many lil’ floating sounds and Milk’s boisterous flow, “Gotta Go” introduces a type of new sound that’s highly blended and could be classified as half space age, half boom bap and is spread over a bit of Motown soul harmonies. I dig it plenty and it’s one of the coolest and original sound meshings Hip-Hop has had in years.

“Deadly Medley” strikes me as the next most impressive cut we find on this outing, pairing Milk with another celebrated Detroit lyricist in Royce The 5’9” over another one of Milk’s highly creative aural backdrops. The twanging of the main loop is a luring canvas for the menacing recital that ensues as Royce brags so adeptly it’d make Ric Flair start to blush. If the album had taken more of the route that this track had I think I would’ve been further receptive……instead we sort of get bombarded throughout the album by a flow that refuses to settle in and far to many beats that dabble in trial running a new sound rather than just being dope.

Even more frustrating sometimes is the few tracks like “Over Again” that beat-wise are sufficient, but lack an effective tone from Milk. His semi-unwillingness to change the pitch of his delivery is puzzling and it clashes against some of the aspects of the beats/themes. “Distortion” is a nice window into Milk’s rise above a bout of depression following the death of his friend and Slum Village member Baatin and his manager’s health complications, but once again the mood of his delivery was sorta clashing with the music. You wanna kick something real, find a more somber pallet and align ya timbre with it. Nevertheless, the track does serve as an introspective gem in Milk’s on-going career that fans of his really should take the time to dissect and maybe gain some insight on some of his interpersonal struggles and eventual triumphs.

Cleary un-affected by any boundaries, Milk zooms through most of the back half of the album, although when I finished I only could recall one joint being really, really indicative of the Hockey Town artist’s former and best work, that being “Black & Brown”. Stoic and stirring, the production is radically good here, even good enough to partially mask the fact that Danny Brown completely stole the show verse-wise from Milk. The skit at the end of the track is hilarious, and surely it also puts people like me (those who dispute the album title’s solicitation) squarely in it’s crosshairs, there is a mighty big let down in the next few tracks to come, until Milk takes us out with the exceptional hindsight that is “Closed Chapter”.

Perhaps Black Milk did a better job of promoting a title than actually making sure Album Of The Year was bonafide, and while I see nothing wrong with pointing your bat toward the bleachers, I usually expect you to follow that up with a homerun. Milk probably hit a double and drove in a run, but he didn’t get to trot around all those bases this time. His flow for some reason was under construction on this go round’ and that was un-needed. He also wandered too much in terms of the beats he chose to incorporate. By no means is this record a dud, there’s some quality work on it, but it is not a complete work and that means Milk false advertised a bit. The moments that do capture you will grip your imagination firmly and likely become favorites, but the stuff that dwindles somewhere between “meh” and “ehh” will leave an impression that whatever Milk was intending to convey musically didn’t fully get translated. Some of Black Milk’s fans from early in his career might also undoubtedly feel a bit alienated by the time this joint finishes, being that he’s formally moved on from his tried and true modus operandi of flipping soul records and resting more orthodox and subdued drums over his chops for his musical discovery approach. At points his progression paid huge dividends, at other phases it just sounded too far away from the sound that I originally became a Black Milk fan for.

$16.25 out of $20.00

-Dominick “BIG D O” Ledezma

Category: Reviews