Black Milk is an appropriate title for Curtis Cross‘ hip-hop project. His music has an underlying dark drift (at times even sinister), but goes down smoother than your favorite dairy product. Curtis calls Detroit home and has consequently been influenced by the city’s musical heritage (Mowtown, Eminem, Danny Brown).
Cross was born 14 August 1983 in Detroit, Michigan, US and grew up absorbing conscious rap greats like J Dilla, A Tribe Called Quest, and Questlove. This influence is evident in his overarching style. Like these predecessors he makes beats that sedates the soul and spits lyrics that expands the mind. When he was not listening to revolutionary figures of the hip-hop industry he was experimenting with drum and karaoke machines in his basement, constructing lo-fi beats in a style that recall proto-punk acts like Suicide. Later down the road he updated to higher end recording equipment and unsurprisingly boasted a more sophisticated and intricate sound.
Curtis got his professional start at the very dawn of the 2000s. One of his very 1st production credits was on a 2001 compilation album released by Slum Village. His group B.R. Gunna, which he formed with Young RJ and Fat Ray released it’s follow up “Dirty District: Vol. 2”.
Within a year of B.R. Gunna’s formation the members called a hiatus. This prompted Curtis to start a solo career (hence the origin of Black Milk) and in 2005 released the mixtape/album “Sound of the City Vol. 1” through his self-established label, Music House Records. His next release, 2006s “Broken Wax EP” came out through the label Fat Beats, sister company to the USA’s largest independent distributor, Koch Entertainment. He also kept busy this year producing many of the tracks on the “Olio” mixtape from T3.
His 2nd studio album “Popular Demand” followed in 2007 and featured a list of aspiring artists from the Detroit area: Phat Kat Guilty Simpson, Slum Village and One Be Lo. In fact the whole album seemed to be heavily steeped in Detroit culture as most of the album’s samples were comprised of Detroit soul acts such as the Supremes, the Originals, The Miracles, and Aretha Franklin. If that was not enough the album’s release date of March 13 presumably relates to the Detroit area code 313.
2008 appeared to be one of the busiest years for Black Milk. He released three collaborative albums that year “Caltroit” with Bishop Lamont, “The Set Up” with Fat Ray and “The Preface” with Elzhi. His 3rd solo LP also came out that year and was met with positive reviews and moderate commercial success, hitting the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart at no. 76 and the Top Heatseekers chart at no. 12. This album also ventured from traditional R&B/soul samples, instead finding inspiration in electronic pop (Gary Numan), folk (Suzane Vega), and space-age prog (Tangerine Dread and Alan Parson’s Project). This release also sported appearances from Bilal, Pharoahe Monch, DJ Premier, and Sean Price.
Black Milk released very little material in 2009 with the exception of “Keep It Going”, which was the lead single from his 2010 “Album of the Year”. This album likewise was met with critical acclaim and broke into the Billboard 200 at no. 136. Contributions from Royce da 5’9”, Elzhi, Danny Brown, and Mr. Porter also graced this release.
More collaborations followed in 2011, seeing Curtis put out the album “Random Axe” with Sean Price and Guilty Simpson and the “Black Brown EP” with Danny Brown. His solo effort “No Poison No Paradise” came out in 2013 and his 6th studio album “There’s Hell Below” was issued in 2014.
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