Touch & Nato Are The Representatives

Rapper Touch and producer DJ Nato team up for this collaboration that unabashedly reps their hometown of Edmonton, AB to the fullest. Touch breaks down their 708 pride with the "Spark That” intro and the next two tracks, "Where I Reside” and "The Representatives.” After that, their collaboration becomes a collection of concept tracks from the perspective of loyal Edmonton residents. Touch references their recording process on "Dusty Disk Drives,” with a slow, deep synth bass, cymbals, short vocal sample and infrequent cello, and their previously released "It’s the SP-12,” a dark ode to the duo’s sampler of choice. Nato’s dark and sinister production results in the majority of the album highlights, including Touch’s over-the-top bragging on "Trained 2 Kill,” his "Freak Show” circus duet with abstract T-Dot rapper Mindbender and "What I Really Wanna Say,” which features a verse from fellow Edmonton patriot Cadence Weapon following Touch’s rehash of his first verse from his more fun-loving, accordion-heavy diss track to Mindbender’s brother, Conspiracy, "What I Wanna Say,” also included. Their update of Slick Rick’s "Children Story” (as "Adult’s Story”) and their respectful ode to women ("Four Letter Word”) are also worth checking. In fact, with very little filler and guest appearances by Wordsworth and the rest of the duo’s LBA crew, Intelligent Design is well worth acquiring. And hopefully it’s just the beginning of their collaborative efforts.