http://www.passionweiss.com/2014/10/24/my-shit-dont-sound-like-dilla-an-interview-with-black-milk/

me: You’re not the new cat anymore.

black milk: Nah, I’m not. I was just telling somebody too, it’s kind of weird that some of these younger cats look up to me. It’s weird hearing someone say ‘dog I was listening to Tronic in high school.’ Damn, you went to high school in 2008?

me: How does it feel to be past that realm of ‘new artist’?

black milk: It feels good to reach a place in your career, in your life, in your artistry where you have this certain level of, I don’t even want to use the word confidence, more of a certain level of ease. You find yourself and what you want to be and who you really are as an artist and as a person in general. That’s the good thing about reaching this point.

In the beginning you’re trying to find yourself. You really haven’t lived alot of life yet. You’re in your late teens or early 20’s kind of going with the flow of everything, which is still great too because there’s a level of rawness there. That’s always dope. At this point I like being able to feel like I’ve carved a lane and I know what I want and I know my place in the game. I have a clear vision of what I want out of this shit.

me: So the newest effort is the new album, If There’s A Hell Below. That’s obviously a Curtis Mayfield reference but after hearing the album it’s also a nod to the content of the album and the perspectives we hear.

black milk: The title is of course a Curtis reference, the way he says it on the record is ‘if there’s a hell below we’re all gonna go.’ I took the title and wanted it to mean something slightly different. For a lot of people if you take that phrase, ‘if there’s a hell below,’ a lot of people feel that this is already it. We’re already living it, we don’t have to wait for the afterlife.

I’m talking about the typical inner-city lifestyle and how you can reach a point where you kind of find the joy, a certain level of happiness within that hell. That’s kind of what that meant. I wasn’t trying to get too deep but it just kind of went there.