Black Milk

For his third solo full-length, Detroit producer/emcee Black Milk opens up his sound. He employs live instrumentation, while moving toward a sound that alternates between the hard hip-hop thump of Just Blaze and the spidery electro soul of mid-period Dilla. Tracks "Give the Drummer Sum" and "Hell Yeah" are neck-snapping masterpieces, and Black Milk gets more bang for his buck by juxtaposing ridiculously hard drum sounds with wiry synth ambiance and purring neo-soul embellishments. It's a neat trick, and Tronic is one of the better underground hip-hop albums of 2008.