No Poison No Paradise

Recording information: Stank Babies Studios.If Black Milk's loud and bright 2010 effort Album of the Year felt like triumph and soul, the dark and punchy No Poison No Paradise feels like doubt and funk. It's also a return to the same kind of hip-shaking techno beats found on his 2008 album, Tronic, but the formerly Detroit-, now Dallas-based rapper and producer is also post-breakthrough, so his hunger is for something different, as the observational "Interpret Sabotage" searches for meaning, or at least peace of mind. Rattling off his lines at a frantic, Twista-fast pace and with a Kanye West-sharp snarl, Milk offers "They're poppin champagne with bitches in bars/They get in the car, they get out of the car, they get in their loft, and get up their broad/They get up the mornin' they like...," then takes both a long inhale and long pause before the hollow and hedonistic circle begins again. Turns out, club life and bottle service aren't nearly as filling as serenity. The jazzy and ironi