Album Review Rapsearch.com DL INCOGNITO - Organic Music For A Digital World Reported by: Hermes Rating: 4/5 The streets want an anthem. Backpackers crave captivating content. DL Incognito desires both. His third album, Organic Music for a Digital World, tries to realize this dream. From struggling to get heard on his debut to being Juno-nominated for Best Rap Recording in 2004, DL's flavour is now an integral spice in the hip hop melting pot. Teaming up with a duo of complimentary producers and doing his own work on the boards, it's the first solo album I've seen in a long minute without guests lacing the tracklisting. This is because DL Incog has more than enough on his mind to rap about. Each song deals with personal problems and airplay-worthy topics, without the need of a second-opinion. His egocentric verses aren't brag-based, but they do over-indulge when it comes to what the audience may find relevant. Perhaps it's the fight for an identity in a dog-eat-dog-and-anything-that-moves industry keeping DL like an animal in the corner defending his skills, but for someone with such critical acclaim over the years, it's nice to see an artist with tenacity and hunger for more than money. When commenting on fighting radio's stranglehold on music, DL, with a voice reminiscent of Big L, rhymes: "Disgrace to the race/ We battle for a place in society's food chain/ No black face/ No shackles, ropes, chains/ Some we still slaves/ Dazed by the diamonds, the cars, the cocaine." Perhaps at the pinnacle of his preach game, this track slaps the listener with the chorus "I'm fighting for my free speech/ Can't get too deep/ I need to dumb my music down if I wanna reach/ The masses." It's powerful to hear him on this track, "The Masses," but when this resistance seeps into each track, the themes begin to spin into a two-dimensional tailspin. To be fair, however, the title hints at this duality, and DL sticks to his thesis for the whole album. In a few spots, he slides in delectable treats to quench the monotony, like the second single from the disc "Live in my Element." DL quits his predictable intonation; discontinuing the end-rhyme flows and giving tremendous texture to Techtwelve's grandiose beat. Did I mention that this producer is a beast? His instrumentals are epic with timeless orchestration of a wide range of sounds and minimal samples. Undoubtedly, the production of this album is standout. Due to the cohesiveness in which it flows between each song, DL Incognito is provided with the soil to plant his "organic" music. "Surplus" follows up with a big sound of banging kicks and violent violins striking at the end of each bar like the Gods of Olympus are pissed off. There are a number of spots that awe. "Two Chicks" courts the sexiest drum pattern, for example. I've always maintained that Canada has some of the dopest production, and this showing just gives more ammunition for that argument. The sole failing point from Organic Music for a Digital World is the clichéd, sweeping commentary that DL likes to incorporate into some of his lines, like on "Reality Bites" where he says, "Racism is real/ People do kill/…Alcohol and bills/ In and out of jail/ We gotta learn to chill." It's when he's not saying anything new that I grow weary of his itinerary. I'm glad to see that much of this tendency was ushered out with his last album, because he now brings unique experiences to combat the manufactured digital world's mould of what's hot and what's not.