Black Milk [click to read] has fully arrived, with his Tronic [click to read]. The emcee who has produced for Slum Village, Lloyd Banks, Sean Price and others has truly outdone himself, with a limited budget and an independent label. Although the album inserts can’t possibly tell you the full story, HipHopDX lets Black tell it in our new Lost Liner Notes series, as a conductor behind one of the front-running releases of the “best of” lists of ’08.
“Long Story Short”
“This song was basically for anyone that wasn’t familiar with me or my music. I wanted to tell my story and how I got into the game and all of the ups and downs you go through trying to make it in this music industry and how I feel that after everything I’ve been through it still feels like it’s only the beginning for me. Brought Dwele in to play horns on the track with my manz AB killing the piano and it was done. This might be my most personal song on the entire album.”
“Bounce”
“A lot of artists don’t care about the actual music anymore just like a lot of the labels they’re signed to. We all know it’s about business and making as much money as you can in a short amount time while you’re hot, and this song was me expressing my views on the music game and how a lot of the fans feel the same way. That’s why they download everything and record sales are not as high as they should be. The beat does not match the lyrical content though. It’s some up tempo futuristic street hop shit, with a crazy sequence change at the end.“
“Give The Drummer Sum” [click to read]
“Around the time when I made this beat I was listening to a lot of James Brown, Fela Kuti, and Afro Rock shit, so I decided I wanted to make an up tempo, funky, break beat sounding, crazy drum pattern, type of track, where the beat was raw but still musical so that’s why I added the horns on the hook with the trumpet and bass solo at the end. The rhymes wasn’t really about nothing. Just me flippin’ a couple styles and flowin’.”
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“Without U” featuring Colin Munroe
“When I found out Kanye made a video for ‘Flashing Light,’ I went to YouTube to check it out and came across this new cat Colin Munroe who did a remix song and video for it. I thought it was was dope as hell. I hit him up on MySpace and found out he was already up on a lot of Detroit music so I asked him if he wanted to try and collab on a track ’cause I thought this dude was talented. He sent me a track with the hook on it within two days. I thought it was dope so I wrote to it, re-programmed his drums and there you have it. The first verse is about a female I felt I could have done better without, and the second verse is about haters that come around and negative people that I’m better without in my life too.“
“Hold it Down”
“Since the album is called Tronic and It’s suppose to be kind of futuristic I had to do a fast tempo, left field sounding beat, but something that could hit hard in a club or a track you might even hear on a cross over radio station. The style is crazy. The beat is crazy and something totally different from anything I’ve made in the past.“
“Losing Out” featuring Royce Da 5’9″ [click to listen]
“I knew I had to have Royce on the album before I even started recording Tronic, so it took me a minute to come with the beat ’cause i wanted to find the right sample, and when I did I couldn’t believe nobody had ever found this sample before me ’cause the shit was bananas. Even though the song is some raw Hip Hop shit I still wanted to talk about how I felt about how Detroit Hip Hop artists are still the underdogs and can be underrated in this music industry so that’s why we have to work 10 times harder then a lot of other artists from other cities. I guess it’s good in a way ’cause it keeps us dropping great music. Oh yeah, the beat changes at the end of this song too, with a drum and bass rhythm with me singing through the R2 Korg Synth Board.“
“Hell Yeah” featuring Fat Ray
“This song was actually the remix to ‘Overdose.’ That’s why the drum beats are similar. One of the guys at Fat Beats couldn’t hear what I was hearing on ‘Overdose,’ so I tried to replace the beat but spit the same verses….’Overdose’ verses didnt work with the ‘Hell Yeah’ beat. so since I like the beat I wrote a whole new song to it, and there you have it, another raw hip hop cut on the album.“
“Overdose”
“One of my favorite tracks. My manz DJ Dez came through and killed the cuts and scratches on the hook and right before we left the studio he decided to play this record while the song was playing. Protools was still recording and when the actual song started to fade out the singing sample kept going at the end, and it took the track to a whole other level. I did a small edit and it came out crazy…funny thing is Just Blaze was originally suppose to do the cuts for this track, but are schedules and time just didn’t permit…but yeah this is one of my favorites.“
“Reppin’ for U” featuring AB
“I wanted to do a track that felt like something I would have came with a while ago. I always buy crazy Moog records ’cause I love how it sounds. This was crazy because I have an album with classic Christmas songs but they’re all played on a Moog keyboard, and the sample for this is actually ‘Oh Holy Night’ (The Moog version). I got my manz AB (another dope up and coming soul singer) to sing on it and add even more soul to it and it came out dope.“
“The Matrix” featuring Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price and DJ Premier [click to listen]
“Pharoahe was another person I knew I wanted to have on the album from the beginning and Sean P [click to read] is fam too, so it was nothing to get him to drop a 16. I decided to holler at Preemo at the last minute, got in contact with him over the phone, sent him the track with everyone’s verses on it. Then he called and asked the name of the track. I told him ‘The Matrix’ and the next day he sent me the song with the legendary Preemo cuts we all know. I couldn’t believe he found those phrase for the hook that fast especially the Jay cut. ‘CAUGHT IN THE MATRIX.’“
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“Try”
“I made it a point to not do soul samples for this album but once again, my manz DJ Dez had this 45 of the greatest soul song I ever heard. I borrowed the album for a minute and wanted to actually do a cover of the original with a live band and a singer, but I didn’t have enough time to do it, so I just made it real simple and did like a two bar chop with a breakdown. You can’t get the full understanding of how ridiculous the actual song is from the beat I did. It was just to much to try to chop. I might still do a cover of that song one day though.”
“Tronic Summer”
“Scratch Magazine did a review on this KorgSynth Keyboard called the R2. They sent it to me to try out and give my opinion for an article. The first track I made off the MPC and the keyboard was this beat. It’s basically me singing into the vocoder that’s on the keyboard and playing at the same time. I thought this was perfect for the album because it sounds like what I was hearing in my mind for the overall sound of the album, and this was supposed to be the original title for the album before I decided to drop the word summer.”
“Bond 4 Life” featuring Melanie Rutherford
“Mel is one of the dopest singers out the D…I wanted to do a melodic track with me basically spitting about me eating, sleeping, and breathing this music shit 24/7 like a lot of artists. I added the Rock guitar solo at the end, which is probably my favorite part of the song and there you have it, ‘Bond 4 Life.’“
“Elec”
“I had to have an outro where the beat changed up a couple times like most of the tracks on this album. Did about a 24 bar chant hook, then switched it up at the end where I got back on the R2 keyboard and played this crazy synth over this simple drum beat…..and then I was out.”
