The trajectory of Black Milk‘s music hasn’t always aligned with what was popular at the time, but it never mattered to anyone who loved his music. Like anyone in the industry, you may get wrapped up in it’s bullshit at times and need a break. Black Milk has always been good at taking the time needed to keep his notable career growing, with space to recharge his creative batteries.
After a four-year break from releasing music, Black Milk is back with a new album, Everybody Good?, that feels fresh and creatively boundaryless. Taking his sound we all love and breathing new air into it. Everybody Good? isn’t just beats and rhymes, but another step in his musicality evolution.
When a Hip-Hop artist has notable features on their album, you can usually tell when those guests truly have respect and close relationship to the artist or when the guest is just doing it for the check. On Everybody Good?, the guests not only have the utmost respect for Black Milk, but they uplift the music rather than outshine at any point.
For example, Phonte Coleman (of Little Brother and The Foreign Exchange) goes 40 bars on a career defining verse on “No Wish”, which was already a great song courtesy of Black Milk and the legendary Raphael Saadiq on bass.
As someone that introduced Black Milk’s music to the Internet before his first project Sound of the City came out and has continued to follow and document his career, he wasn’t always the artist the main websites and blogs fawned over. He built his own fan base that has stayed with him. He’s been able to grow musically without the media trying to put him in some sort of box. If they tried, I don’t think he cared. If anything, after chatting with him recently for a brief moment, the pandemic taught him that the rat race the music industry can be just isn’t worth and the results of his time off in Everybody Good? shows good music will find its way to the right ears. The buzz for this album now that it’s available is real and well deserved.
Purchase/Stream Everybody Good?: linktr.ee/black_milk
Vinyl and CD available at: blackmilk.bandcamp.com