Black Milk Returns

Black Milk, the über-talented Detroit rapper/producer who’s both carried beat pioneer J. Dilla’s Midwest Basement torch while carving out a new, creative boom-bap path, hits Austin tonight, though he won’t be coming to any venue you’d expect.

The Fun Fun Fun Fest veteran, who’s also cut through town to play Red 7 and the Scoot Inn during SXSW, will be well east of his regular downtown haunts, headlining an eight-act lineup with a DJ set – that will likely include a fair amount of rapping – at the certifiably off-grid Museum of Human Achievement.

What’s the Museum of Human Achievement, exactly? It’s Zach Traeger’s performance warehouse, an East Austin “multi-disciplinary arts space” that stretches roughly 7,500 square feet across Springdale and [we can’t tell you] and caters to everything from synth acts like Survive, Silver Apples, and Traeger’s own Zorch, Austin’s preeminent synth freak duo, to performances, art installations, and plays.

The Museum does little to advertise its events, opting instead for what Playback columnist Kevin Curtin describes as “a more organic sense of promotion and getting the word out,” so we cannot tell you how much this show costs.

What we can tell you is that the big bill includes tech junkies Sampler & Son; electro downbeat DJs Soundfounder, Malloc, and DJ Cozmos; rappers Anthony Maintain and AF the Naysayer; and hard-nosed Cleveland producer Delofi. That should be a pretty good time. Few hip-hop artists these days bring such a complete show to the stage as Black Milk. That he’s coming to town without heading up a venue in the C3 Presents/Transmission Entertainment ring is surprising news.

If you don’t feel like beating so far off the battered bush for hip-hop tonight, longtime punchline Coolio, the antenna-haired rapper you either know as the man behind “Gangsta’s Paradise” or the man currently starring on “Celebrity Wife Swap,” hits Scoot Inn’s outdoor stage on Sunday for $12.

“C U When U Get There,” right?