Black Milk - Demo Beats 2012

Nothing could please us more than word today that our man Curtis Cross- the impossible Black Milk- was pouring over a folder of some 400 (!!!) demo beats he'd been working on over the course of the year.  Late in the day he dropped a file to his soundcloud account called Demo Beats 2012 that is certain to create a quiet storm in the Hip Hop community.

In a year that's been dominated by micro cycles of hype and canonization in 'independent' Hip Hop (see Kendrick Lamar) it was reasonable to question what place was there at the table for the last great hope Black Milk the protege and heir apparent to the neo-soul throne of his mentor J Dilla.

Cross has left no place for doubt.  This 6:57 is more future forward than one might expect from the garrulous  producer.  With his most recent production efforts (after his 2010 signal Album Of The Year) he's produced a variety of projects revered by his acolytes all of which however failed to launch anywhere near commercially or critically.  His highly anticipated collaboration with Danny Brown the Black and Brown EP admittedly didn't amount to more than the sum of its parts (and was fairly thoroughly drubbed critically).  Similarly Random Axe the Hip Hop supergroup composed of Guilty Simpson, Sean Price and Black Milk yielded varied results.  Two recent collaborations with Jack White (Brain and Royal Mega) were promising in principal as was a live set at White's Third Man Records.  His much vaunted collaboration Searching For Sanity with vocalist Melanie Rutherford has yet to appear.

Demo Beats 2012 drops like something of a clarion call from a man who may feel like he has something to prove.  The futuristic style of the transmission harkens back to his own 2008 release Tronic which largely put him on the map particularly with collaborations like The Matrix (featuring Pharoahe Monche and Sean Price).  His first releases 2005's Sound Of The City (as well as 11 untitled tracks from August 2005), 2006's Broken Wax EP and the landmark Popular Demand (2008) established Black Milk as a strong advocate of the neo-soul tradition highly adept with the MPC 2000.  The Music Production Center 2000 has signal processing qualities that are highly pleasing to the human ear as most sample based music we're familiar with has been produced with this device.  Some producers would say that it is the loss of signal, a pleasing 'woody' quality to the sample, as much as the transmission that satisfies the listener aurally.

Milk, a drummer and percussionist, who appears on the cover of Popular Demand with an MPC tucked under his arm plays the 'instrument' live and in the studio better than most any human being.  Which is what makes this teaser of his current output so fascinating.  This material veers out into some new bracing territory (sounding at times unabashedly similar to even Dilla's Donuts with it's style of constant revolutions of sound) that suggests a much broader sonic palette and production environment.  Where Album Of The Year was definitive for how he captured the live sounds of instrumentalists Daru Jones (drums), AB (keys) and bassist Tim Shellabarger (not as much for his personal lyrics of the crushing year he had marked by loss) here we see a man tossing off, literally, a tossed off beat (one of 400 he'd rather hold onto for now) that echoes at points his deep crates neo-soul lineage while pointing clearly to a whole new bag.

Sean Price - Mic Tyson (video, tracklist)

STFU pt. 2 - prod. The Alchemist

Out October 30th is Sean Price's long awaited follow up to his 2007 solo release Jesus Price Supastar.   Price's only other solo outing was 2005's Monkey Barz.  Although Price, originally affiliated with the Boot Camp Clik and a member of the duo Heltah Skeltah,  is a frequent and prized guest on others records his own catalogue is a little thin.  Apart from his membership in two Hip Hop supergroups (Boot Camp Clik and Random Axe), three solo albums and three mixtapes (most notably 2009's Kimbo Price), the Brownsville, Brooklyn native seems never to have quite gotten his due.

This is a crying shame.

Price brings humour, bravado as well as a nimble and streetwise sense to his often dense internal rhyme structures.  Prized as a rapper's rapper it's no surprise the calibre of both producers and MC's who vie to work with him.  The tracklist for Mic Tyson, from which Price has been debuting tracks in his live show over the past couple of years, demonstrates his range of collaborations:

 Mic Tyson Tracklist: 

01) Genesis of the Omega (prod. by The Alchemist)
02) Bar-Barian (prod. by The Alchemist)
03) Pyrex (prod. by Amp)
04) Price & Shining Armor feat. Ruste Juxx (prod. by Wool)
05) Title Track (prod. Eric G)
06) Straight Music (prod. by 9th Wonder)
07) STFU Part 2 (prod. by The Alchemist)
08) Hush (prod. by Khrysis!)
09) Solomon Grundy feat. Ike Eyes & Ill Bill (prod. by Eric G)
10) Frankenberry feat. Buckshot (prod. by Stu Bangaz)
11) BBQ Sauce feat. Pharoahe Monch (prod. by Evidence | Co-Produced by Babu)
12) Bully Rap feat. Realm Reality (prod. by The Alchemist)
13) By The Way feat. Torae (prod. by Evidence)
14) Battering Bars feat. Pumpkin Head (prod. by Beat Butcha)
15) The Hardest Ni**a Out  (prod. by Beat Butcha)

A Mic Tyson Deluxe-Edition album is currently available for pre-order through Itunes in advance of the album's release date October 30.

iTunes Bonus Tracks:

16) Haraam (prod. by Team Demo)
17) Remember feat. Freddie Gibbs (prod. by Statik Selektah)
18) I See (prod. by Quelle Chris)

Random Axe - Random Calling

Just absolutely everything you could hope for from a collaboration of this nature.  Milk's tinkling neo-soul piano with his Price's and Guilty Simpson's lyrics cresting atop.

Random Axe self-title released today

Vinyl LP + Digital Download Card Available For Orders Now At Fat Beats, Ships Out Next Week

Random Axe leak Chewbacca

In the quick runup to the release of Random Axe' (Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Sean Price) self titled another track is available for your listening pleasure.  Chewbacca featuring Roc Marciano opens with a Black Milk calliope beat you swear you've heard from him before - Sean P quickly diving his head into the snowy beats.

Random Axe "Chewbacca" feat. Roc Marciano by duckdown

Random Axe debuts self-titled at NYC listening party

Billboard is reporting on a listening party held at the Dominican NY Theater & Lounge for Random Axe's (Black Milk, Sean Price, Guilty Simpson) self-titled debut.  The 15 track album including the already previewed The Hex includes cuts entitled Chewbacca, Understand This and Random Call.

While Black Milk is the sole producer on the album - it is the uncanny collaboration of Brownsville native Sean Price's and Guilty Simpson's and their jocular style of jailyard collegiality that gives the album it's deep grind.  It's deep grind floating atop Milk's slightly-less-spaced (than this past years Album Of The Year) beats lends to its deep appeal.  Getting the sessions going with Price and Simpson engaged in any manner of chicanery was apparently a constant tug of war of productivity over hilarity.   Likewise while Milk conducted the sessions and had Price rapping his deep internal and stacked rhymes over 'Jimi Hendrix shit' - Price lobbied for Milk to come to the fore vocally on more tracks as he does on The Hex.

Random Axe Random Axe is being released June 14th on Duck Down Music.

Random Axe added to Rock The Bells

Random Axe (Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Sean Price) has been added to this years Rock The Bells tour with headliners including Nas (with special guests Pete Rock, AZ & DJ Premier) Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kwali), Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, the GZA, Immortal Technique, Slaughterhouse and Ms. Lauryn Hill.  Rock The Bells 11 will be hosted by The RZA, Murs 3:16 and Supernatural.



Random Axe (Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Sean Price) collab drops June 14

The long in the works super-group collaboration between uber-Hip Hop producer Black Milk and gutteral gifted street voices Guilty Simpson and Sean Price is set to drop June 14th.

The lead track The Hex is now available for viewing, purchase (through Itunes) and listening.

Random Axe "The Hex" by duckdown

Black Milk, Album Of The Year preview

Although an old clip this is the most in depth preview of Black Milk in the studio, first talking about the forthcoming Random Axe collaboration (Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Sean Price), then an album he's doing with  vocalist Melanie Rutherford called Searching for Sanity then his own highly anticipated Album Of The Year.  Simply seeing the young Curtis Cross move nimbly in his own studio is electrifying, some of the best footage comes at the end though when his live drummer Daru comes into the studio and they work out a dizzying live beat.

Sean Price, Revival, Toronto, Review, Setlist (08.28.10)

After a competent, brisk moving but ultimately long undercard the well sated audience now bristling with anticipation ecstatically welcomed Brownsville's own Sean Price to the Toronto stage.

Looking like he had home advantage in his solid Blue Jay reds, his wardrobe progressed over the court of his sweltering set to predominantly a wife beater and a towel over his shaved dome (while dropping a line at one point about Ike Turner and Wife Beater's)- this had both a bemusing and gripping quality about it.

Price commanded the audience from the opening notes.  Sean has the ability to befriend an audience with his considerable girth and muscular fortitude in a way that might not seem befitting to a man of his stature, it is in part his kind eyes that perhaps make you forget for a moment that he could smack the white off rice.  This is in part because for all of Price's deeds and misdeeds, he is by at least one jurisdiction's estimation a 'bad man' who has done 'bad things' for which he was imprisoned for a period of time.  But good fruit never falls from bad trees, nor bad fruit from good ones.  But occasionally strange fruit falls from strange trees.

The highlights of his set, of which there were many, included Boom Bye Yeah, P Body and a loving change of pace with Heartburn where he sang his own Barry White style backing vocals while doing a kind sort of shoulder swagger before taking the audience down for another death roll.    This included Peep My Words, Boost and the fitting King Kong (by this point Price was already well into the mechanics of pacing the stage like a panther in a cage) before a brief hit of the Fab 5's Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka.

After the title track of his solo album Monkey Barz, the self-titled Sean P and a well anticipated Onion Head he went into a more full prelude to his forthcoming Mic Tyson (presumably Mixtape).  With new cuts aired near the end of his set being Figure Four and Shut The Fuck Up (having debuted Let Me Tell You with a rewind of the heavy Alchemist beat early in his set).

Sean Price interview (Random Axe, Mic Tyson)

Q: Sean you have such a long discography from your earliest collaborations with Heltah Skeltah, Boot Camp Clik, your countless mixtapes (including Master P and Kimbo Price) and of course your well regarded solo outings Monkey Barz and Jesus Price Supastar, to say nothing of your countless collaborations. What then can fans expect or what do fans expect from your live show, beyond the songs that the heads are always calling out for what are the songs that have stayed staples in your repertoire- that you really enjoy playing live?


A: I like to switch it up a lot at shows. It depends on the crowd, you know. Lot of high energy shit. Always like to do some newer stuff that the fans don't expect me to perform. Figure 4 has became a new favorite of mine. I like to keep em guessing, doing the same tracks every performance would be boring and it keeps me on my toes as well. I can get a better sense for how good my records are based on the crowds reaction to newer material.



Q: You once said that people are "mad 'cause I make music no longer for the fun of it." Yet having fun seems to be at the core of alot of your enterprises (like turning Duck Down Records into Ruck Down Records), what were you getting at when you made this remark and does it still apply?

A:  Basically, I used to just fuck around with it. I took it seriously but at the same time I didn't. Now it's a bit more serious, I still make good music and have fun but I got a family to feed. Does that mean I'm gonna do some wack shit just to get money? naw. The music is still dope and I'm still having fun.



Q: You're known for your frequent collaborations with individuals connected with Staten Island but you also have built ties to alot of other Hip Hop communites such as your priceless stab on Black Milk's Tronic standout The Matrix, or more recent collaborations with members of North Carolina's Little Brother. Do you feel like there's a 'Detroit' or a 'Midwest' sound you can identify with? Or is Hip Hop just Hip Hop no matter where it's from?

A: Hip Hop is hip hop. I've done music with people from everywhere. Little Brother and Black Milk are both amazing and that's why I mess with them. But Detroit is definitlely producing a good sound right now with cats like Royce, Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Elzhi, etc.




Q: Ever since you Black Milk and Guilty Simpson collaborated on Run from Ode To The Ghetto (where the line 'Random Axe' first appears) and talk first leaked about a possible full length collaboration the excitement has just continued to build. It sounds like the time in the studio with Milk and Simpson was jokes (and single Monster Babies sounds like a good marriage of Milk's production and yours and Simpson's flow). What can you tell us about the collaboration or any random tale about you and Hex* throwing stories back and forth in the studio?

A:  We just finished up recording it in Detroit. The environment was definitely crazy with me, Guilty, Black Milk, and Hex around. We all joke around a lot and it's always a good time hanging with those dudes. Black Milk is mixing the project now.


Q: Random Axe is of course going to come out on Duck Down Records- what other new releases should we be looking for you on?

A:  The main focus right now is Random Axe, but after that is Mic Tyson!!! I may do a children's book too with free audio included.

*Hex or Hex Murda is both Black Milk's DJ in his live touring band as well as his business manager, he also manages the career of Elzhi.  Price and Hex both share colourful prison histories which apparently made the Random Axe recording sessions a hilarious process as each regaled one another with tales of the tape.

Hip Hop Legend Sean Price plays Toronto's Revival (Aug. 26, 2010)

Born in Brownsville, NY Price is known in the rap world since his debut in the early 90s for his work with Heltah Skeltah and Boot Camp Clik. A frequent collaborator with a whole host of heavyweights Sean also has two solo full lengths (Monkey Bars, Jesus Price Supastar) and a slew of mixtapes under his belt, the most recent being the Kimbo Price Mixtape.


True afficianados though no Price from a single (literally) collaboration that Heltah Keltah (where Price was known as Ruck (The Irrational) with his partner Rock(nessmonster) and Originoo Gunn Clappaz did as The Fab 5.

Price has come a long way from his humble beginnings listen to for instance his contemporary work on The Matrix (from Black Milk's pivotal Tronic) likely one of the greatest Hip Hop tracks produced in the last 5 years.





Price is a frequent collaborator of  Black Milk's and makes up one third (with Milk and Guilty Simpson) of the supergroup Random Axe (predominantly mentioned on Guilty Simpson's song Run from Ode To The Ghetto).  Here is Monster Babies the first joint released from the forthcoming album.





Here we see Sean Price signing with Duck Down records (ostensibly for a gold rolex) for the release of the forthcoming Random Axe album.  Price drops a short a capella verse directly addressing the camera giving the listener some insight into his force, bravura and bravado.







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