In part 2 of our interview with the legendary Milk D, he talks about the much-rumoured lost album ‘First Dead Indian’. And we couldn’t let him talk about it without pestering him to hear some of it. He obliged, which is why we’ve got a world premiere for you – the first track from ‘First Dead Indian’ ever to be aired. Make ‘Jeep Voices’ the soundtrack as you read on…

Audio Two feat. MC Lyte – Jeep Voices (from ‘First Dead Indian’)

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I wrote to the First Priority fanclub in the 80’s and received a merchandise catalogue. Did all that stuff exist?
Yeah, it all existed. In pre-internet days, it was all manual so we did that to establish a mailing list. But the varsity jackets were out of control, especially the First Priority ones. A lot of people ordered them. They were $100 each but we didn’t make a profit on them – that’s how much they cost! I still have all of my stuff. I have the Shirt Kings shirt from the LP cover, the Milk is Chillin’ jacket from the video, the Audio Two jacket, I have all of my clothes from album covers and the videos.

Did you go on any major tours?
Yeah, for what you’d consider a major tour back then. We weren’t on Fresh Fest – that came and went 4 or 5 years before I started, but we did a lot of shows with 5 or 10 people on the bill. We did a lot of shows with Kane, Biz, Superlover Cee, a million shows with KRS One, Kid ‘n’ Play. We did so many shows. I remember we did a show one time, I think it was in Rochester, New York, with KRS One, EPMD, Skinny Boys and that one was out of control. The crowd were going crazy. It was so amped that people were getting hurt.

How do you feel about the reception of your second LP, ‘I don’t care’?
It did about the same in sales as the first album, but I feel the first album was more popular. I think, overall, the second album is better than the first, but the first is just classic. It was a change. Initially when we started, we were independent and then we signed a distribution deal with Atlantic. That was a popular thing to do at the time, but it affected the music. Initially, they let us do what we wanted because we had proven it could work, even though they didn’t understand it. By the time of second album they were starting to tell us what it was supposed to sound like. The lead single, ‘On the road again’, I like the song but I have a lot of bad feelings about the song because they made me do it. They were like, ‘we need something like Heavy D’. That was the best Heavy D that I could do, but it made me mad that I had to do it. Why couldn’t I do what I wanted to do, which I was used to doing.

After that album, you split up. What happened?
I think it’s the nature of the business. Groups are together and then they split up. There’s always egos and money, and that’s usually the foundations of break-ups. Probably mostly ego. I think it was just time for us to split up and do our own thing.

Had you recorded ‘First Dead Indian’ at that stage?
Yes, we had already finished that.

That’s a famous unreleased album. Is it ever coming out?
We are gonna put that out. People are gonna be able to get it. ‘First Dead Indian’ is similar to the first album, in that we were really trying to do something unique, but it was really different because we had a lot of different producers on it. Actually, Grandmaster Flash did two songs. Easy Mo Bee did a song. King of Chill did some songs. And I’m forgetting some people. But that was the first album where we had so many producers.

Did you have any guest artists on there?
Just Lyte, but I don’t consider her a guest.

So why wasn’t it released?
Because on that album we just did what we wanted and didn’t listen to them and they couldn’t see it. They didn’t really understand it and we were like, ‘it’s time to get out of here’. They wanted us to do something other than what we do. I always feel I perform better when I do my thing rather than when I try to imitate or duplicate. That’s why we left Atlantic. These big labels don’t really understand what it is, they just want to capitalise on it. I don’t think anyone at Atlantic was playing ‘What More Can I Say?’ in their car.

Audio Two – Top Billin’ (Remix – More Bass)

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How did the hook up with Rick Rubin for your solo project on American Recordings come about?
I was always a big Rick Rubin fan. He’s one of my idols as far as production go – Rick Rubin and Marley Marl. They inspire me. Rick always does something ill and unusual. I placed a call to Rick – and anyone who knows Rick knows that it’s impossible to get in touch with him – and left a message and five hours later he called me back. I told him I wanted to be on his label and he told me he would be honoured and before we even had any contracts he sent me a cheque and we got started. The thing that’s even more crazy is that after I started working on the project, my A & R guy told me a story and told me I could have got more money because Rick wanted me on the label. He said when he went for his interview, Rick took him to Tower Records and said, go in and buy two CD’s and I’ll buy two CD’s, then come back and we’ll talk about it. He said Rick got ‘What More Can I Say?’ and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s CD and told him that he wanted both of us on his label.

How was it working with him in the studio?
Actually, we only did a couple of sessions. Most of it was over the phone, he’d call me and tell me what he wanted. I made a big mistake, actually. You know DJ Kool’s ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’? He wanted me to do that song. I couldn’t see it. And he was like, ‘Milk, I’m telling you, use 900 number and do this,’ and I didn’t do it. Then they did it with DJ Kool and it became a big hit for him.

American was a good home for you?
Yeah, because we were similar in our thinking. All of the crazy stuff I wanted to do, they wanted to do and even more crazier!

So why no more solo joints since then?
I don’t know. I haven’t been inspired, until recently, and I’ve been real busy in the studio producing. I did an album for Proven Innocent, an album for Mekhi Phifer, a remix for Janet Jackson, albums for Jason Downs and Eamon. I was just busy in the studio.

Do you think you’ll ever do another solo album?
I’m working on it right now. In fact, I stopped working to wait for this call. This is what I’ve been contemplating for this years, and right now this is where I’m at: this is gonna be some Milk D shit. Beats and rhymes and concepts. A lot of the music sounds different from what’s going on, but I’m going with it, that’s me. It’s gonna be on First Priority, we’re relaunching, we’ve got financing, we’re just putting all of the pieces together and we’re gonna start releasing new material this year. But it’s not just hip-hop. We’ve got some pop and some rock groups, which I also like producing. We’re using the old logo on most things, with a new futuristic one for some things.

Do you have a title for your solo project yet?
Yes, I do… okay, I’ll tell you. This is my title, and it may change, but I doubt it. It’s going to be called ‘People Call Me Milk’. That’s what I always did, apart from ‘Never Dated’, my LP’s were always quotes from ‘Top Billin’.

When did you start to see money from ‘Top Billin’ samples?
Hmmm, 91? 92 maybe. Mary was the first one, ‘Real Love’, the first substantial one. I feel blessed and I really appreciate it. I think that’s the difference between me and a lot of ‘old school’ artists, that because I get sampled so much it’s harder to forget me.

How did you feel about 50 Cent’s virtual cover version?
I appreciate the fact that it keeps me out there. It was the hottest song on his album. It’s all good, it’s papers. And I learned a lot from that experience. I had a lot of people not realise it was me, and I’m like, ‘how can you not realise?’ But then you realise that it’s been over 20 years.