Born and raised in Detroit on the sounds of
A Tribe Called Quest and
De La Soul,
Curtis Cross found out at an early age that he had a talent for hip-hop, especially for beats. He spent hours in his basement -- at first with just a cheap drum machine and a home karaoke system, eventually moving up to more sophisticated MPCs and samplers -- making tapes. One of these tapes got into the hands of fellow Detroiters
Slum Village, who were impressed by what they heard and invited
Cross to produce a track on their 2002 mixtape
Dirty District, as well as on their official full-length
Trinity (Past, Present and Future). After that,
Cross, who was going as
Black Milk, teamed up with producer
RJ Rice, Jr. (or
Young RJ), as the group
B.R. Gunna, rhyming and making beats on the duo's 2004 release
Dirty District, Vol. 2. That same year,
Slum Village, who were looking for production work because usual beat-makers
Waajeed and
Kareem Riggins were busy with other projects, hired
B.R. Gunna for 11 of the 13 tracks on their
Detroit Deli LP.
In 2005, without a label and with his group on hiatus,
Black Milk went on to release
Sound of the City, which was more of a mixtape than a typical album, on his own Music House Records, and shortly after worked on
SV's self-titled record. By this time, indie rap label Fat Beats had heard
Black Milk's work, which many compared to that of the late
J Dilla and producer/MC
Madlib; impressed, the label signed him in 2006 and issued his official solo debut,
Popular Demand, in March of 2007. Late that same year, a joint
Bishop Lamont/
Black Milk tape, mixed by
DJ Warrior, hit the streets, a slightly modified version of which was mastered and released commercially by Music House early in 2008, and just a few months later, his collaboration with fellow Detroiter
Fat Ray,
The Set Up, came out. In October, he capped off the productive year with the release of his second official solo album,
Tronic. He worked with a four-piece live band for 2010’s Album of the Year, a heavily rock-influenced effort that featured guest artists Royce da 5’9” and eLZhi.
–
Marisa Brown, Rovi