Rating: NNN
DL Incognito, the Ottawa-raised Juno-nominated rapper who plateaued nationally in the mid-2000s, is back with a fifth record of clear-eyed, clenched-fisted, classic rap.
Consistency is DL’s long-game: The album takes no real risks but sounds all the more refreshing for it. This is laid-back, smoove-sampling, reverential hip-hop for listeners reared on and nostalgic for the golden era of the mid-90s.
This approach – two decades later we’re allowed to call it throwback, right? – might seem passé and shortsighted from a lesser rapper, or gimmicky and unrealized from a young ‘un (see Joey Bada$$), but the old-school flow is DL’s lane. On Someday, DL is engaging, honest, smart and hungry-sounding, making no concessions to (or poaching from) today’s trends. “I am not that rapper,” he stresses on No Rings. His collaborators (Adam Bomb, Caliph, D-Sisive) are of the same ilk but never overshadow him.
Top track: Days Gone (feat. D-Sisive)