J Dilla has now been dead for three years, and he is still talked about more than he ever was in his life.

Sure, many of us admired him in the living years, but to be entirely honest his public legend has been built posthumously.  This is oddly appropriate to Dilla’s lack of star chasing and densely timeless catalog of music, but it is notable to remember that there are still many Dillas out there without lupus who walk among us.  Black Milk is one of them.

Black Milk is also a young Detroit beatscaper, and worked with Dilla, particularly by contributing production to Slum Village.  He also contributed cuts to Pharoahe Monch’s stellar Desire album.  Monch appears on Tronic and delivers his usual casually mind-blowing barrage over “The Matrix,” another sympatico collaboration.

Aside from a few more cameos, Black Milk handles the lion’s share of the vocals here.  He clearly exceeds Dilla in his emcee proficiency, particularly on “Hold It Down,” which rivals GZA and RZA in “Life Is A Movie” from GZA’s ProTools on the rarefied 2008 battleground of rappers vamping over Gary Numan.

Tronic strongly recalls Dilla in the obviously labored-over construction and marination of beats and sound, throwing mini-symphonies away as intros and outros in that Pete Rock fashion Dilla made his own.  As the title suggests, there is plenty of electronic and soulful retro-futuristic texture here, something Dilla might be diddling with more heavily himself in this post-Graduation environment.

In additon to Numan, Black Milk interpolates bits from Tangerine Dream, Alan Parsons, and Moog Machine, staking out his own territory of space soul.  The album is a tremendous calling card, marrying the hyper-embellished Detroit hip-hop sound with sci-fi gloss and ambition.  Hopefully this one will make it into and through his 30s.