DJ Cosm is best known as one half of the Calgary hip hop duo Dragon Fli Empire alongside emcee Teekay. The group made their return after a seven year-hiatus last year when they dropped their album, Banff Avenue. With that checked off their list, that meant it was finally time for DJ Cosm to drop a follow-up to his 2011 solo debut, Time and Space, which he does with Natural Within.

Much like on Time and Space, DJ Cosm has once again opted for an emcee collaboration compilation album for Natural Within. Of course, this always means that it falls on the producer to do an excellent job in bringing together a bunch of beats and artists that make sense together and create some kind of flow and unified style to the album. Fortunately, DJ Cosm has been in the game for a minute, and he assembles quite the crew of emcees to rhyme on his album, getting everyone from ‘90s East Coast emcees like El Da Sensei, Sadat X, and Prince Po, to current Canadian artists like Ghettosocks and Merkules to American indie artists like Chris Orrick and Anti-Lilly, just to name a few. DJ Cosm is bringing plenty of that gritty East Coast soul-sampling boom bap to the table, the kind of beats that establish some fat grooves that all these emcees can just find that pocket really easily and start spitting. Overall, the quality remains pretty high, which is why it’s noticeable when you get to the one weird verse on the album, which occurs on “Theme Music.” I don’t know Fortified Mind, Theoretic Bars, or Skanks the Rap Martyr well enough to pick out voices, but one of them out of no where feels the need to claim that too many young boys are getting anally raped, and then clarifies that he’s never been touched by someone like Jerry Sandusky. It’s not necessarily offensive, but it’s certainly odd and doesn’t fit with anything else happening on the album. On the complete other end of the spectrum, the standout track for me closes out the album, when Anti-Lilly and A.Y.E. both trade verses on “Maintain” about self-care and mental health that feels very needed to start out 2021.

Outside of a minor blip, Natural Within is a solid sophomore solo album for DJ Cosm. There are tons of gritty beats and rhymes to please hip hop heads across the spectrum.