Funky DL is a London emcee who’s been quite prolific over his 15-year career. NANE marks his fourteenth full length solo album, which he’s released alongside such mixtape series as Funky DL Samples…. For those of you who have been turned on to British hip hop in the last ten years, your association is probably with artists like Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Speech Debelle, and the sort. Funky DL sounds nothing like this. He is a throwback to a much earlier American, specifically New York sound.

NANE is a throwback album from a throwback artist. He cites Native Tongue acts like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul as his inspiration, but personally, the first artist that came to mind when I heard him was Big Daddy Kane. Some of the tracks on the album, such as “Clock-watchers,” with it’s jazz piano sample and smooth groove hint at the Native Tongue influence. “Heaven Sent,” however, could easily be a Kane song, with it’s sparse production built around the interplay between drum machine and R&B vocal samples cooing, “ooh!”, all while DL lays down his best romantic verses. Unfortunately, there’s nothing groundbreaking happening on NANE, nothing that DL does to make his music stand apart from his influences. I’m as big a fan of early ‘90s NYC hip hop as anybody, but there’s no real entry point on the album to dive in deeper. It’s a perfectly enjoyable album from a veteran artist who can imitate a style very well, and it’ll be a great addition to any party soundtrack, and people are sure to nod their heads and move their feet. I just can’t make any sort of meaningful connection to the music beyond that.

Funky DL has been around for a long time, and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. NANE is an enjoyable album, but lacks a moment where DL shows you why he’s special. I like the album fine when it’s playing, but I have doubts about it’s staying power.