What would the banging yet smooth beats of DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and the sonic architects of ’90s boom-bap sound like today? Nova Scotian-based producer Darrell Kelloway aka DK has answered that question with his warm, analog-meets-digital hybrids of wistful yet modern boom-bap. Dust-coated samples of funk, soul, jazz, and more fuse with live instrumentation in his thumping scores, evoking images of vibrant graffiti murals on subway cars and unforgettable summer park jams that somehow exist in decades past and now. Listen to the Masters (Black Buffalo Records/Fat Beats), his new collaborative album with veteran Canadian MC Ghettosocks, is another brilliant entry in his progressive catalog. As Ghettosocks and a cast of revered rappers stimulate your mind, DK’s head-nodding beats hit your soul.

“I want people to feel good when they hear my music,” DK says. “I want to transport them back to a time that makes them feel good.”

Born and raised in Newfoundland, Kelloway grew up being audibly transported by his father’s eclectic vinyl and CD collections. His grandmother taught him the basics of the organ, but those notes couldn’t compete with DMX’s bark and Dr. Dre’s cinematic g-funk. In love with hip-hop at first listen, a teenaged Kelloway then discovered A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, Kanye West, and more hip-hop artists whose music appealed to his affinity for jazz and soul. He didn’t know it then, but these foundational influences would shape his sound as DK.

Kelloway became obsessed with making beats in college. He spent every waking hour outside of class on Fruity Loops, learning his craft one sample and drum break at a time. Chasing a grittier and more vintage aesthetic, he purchased an MPC and began developing his meticulous amalgam of vinyl sampled drums, analog synthesizers, dusty loops, and other live instrumentation. 

Local producers and MCs applauded Kelloway’s early work, but he made his proper debut with 2019’s Soul Expressions, a bumping yet mellow 10-track EP that showcased the DK signature with a tight roster of Canadian rappers such as Ghettosocks, Aquakultre, and Timbuktu, as well as features from New York spitter Justo The MC and Atlanta-based Cam James. The positive local reception propelled Kelloway and Justo to complete their joint This is Me, which became a trending project on AudioMack. 

Listen to the Masters is the culmination of Kelloway’s career thus far, featuring his most ambitious and forward-thinking production. After he and Ghettosocks’s friendship became an artistic kinship, they spent two pandemic-restricted years completing the album and recruiting features from venerated grandmasters like CL Smooth, El Da Sensei, O.C., and Skyzoo as well as rising stars like Rome Streetz. While Ghettosocks worked with his fellow MCs, Kelloway collaborated with local musicians to bring an analog swagger to beats like “Baggage,” where stirring saxophone accents, plaintive piano keys and skull-cracking drums. Listen to the Masters ushers in a new era of crate-digging hip-hop and incisive lyricism while establishing Kelloway as one of Canada’s brightest producorial talents. In DK’s hands, the ’90s are now.