While Black Milk's ambitiously titled album may have fallen a little short of it's namesake, it is still one of the most forward pushing albums of the year. Known for his producing more so than his rapping, Black Milk attempts to push hip-hop in a burgeoning new direction away from prototypical hip-hop beats and into something that more closely resembles a cross between soul/jazz/funk/rock/whatever else you may think of. With most hip-hop albums one listens too, it's tough to conceptualize how it would play in a live performance. However, hip-hop has grown and with it the expectations for live hip-hop has grown as well and fans are starting to require unique experiences that go past a DJ in the background waving a towel around and shouting into a microphone every fifth word to pass as musical accompaniment.
And in this sense of expanding what live hip-hop is capable of, Black Milk excels. With several big acts now touring regularly with a live band, Black Milk reaches even further and creates an album that begs for a live performance. This is the case for songs such as Keep Going and Gospel Psychedelic Rock as on the former Black Milk creates a beat that seemingly only he could create and on the latter creates a beat that is oozing with Detroit's musical heritage.
However, the album is not without it's missteps. At times, it feels Black Milk is reaching too far artistically to pioneer that brand new sound that hip-hop and it's fans are constantly searching for. But it's hard to truly be upset by the missteps. Black Milk has constantly prided himself on progressing hip-hop, particularly as a producer, and when trying something that has rarely been tried there are sure to be missteps. But overall he produces a work that few else could or would even dare to try, and even though I may be showing a slight hometown bias, I believe he deserves the credit.
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