Highly regarded Toronto hip-hop jester D-Sisive hid in his room, paralyzed by family tragedy and personal turmoil. When he finally re-emerged in 2008 it was as a far different man and he had a lot to say. First, there was The Idiot: Hijacked, a black-clouded cut-up of Iggy Pop's 1977 album The Idiot. There was the dour Nobody With A Notepad EP and the collaboration "Like This" with Detroit’s Guilty Simpson (stones throw) just to prove he still had it. Most notably, there was The Book, the intense Juno Award-nominated document of those lost years.

D-Sisive was back. And the man who had made his rep years earlier through a ridiculous Pee-Wee's Playhouse-cribbing live show, collaborations with Bob Saget and UK/European hit singles with DJ Format was finally ready to make good on all that promise with his first proper full-length album, Let The Children Die.

Canadian hip-hop elite like Classified, Buck 65, Sweatshop Union, DJ Grouch, Moss, 9th Uno and Muneshine are on side. Muneshine, The Arkeologists, Moss, DJ Alibi, Scam, Bird, Arythmetic and Orin Isaacs — most of the beat-making team behind The Book — were back behind the soundboard again this time.

Their support will help, considering D-Sisive has essentially declared open war on conventional rap using the weapons that are Let The Children Die's songs. For a man who cites Big L, Big Pun and Notorious B.I.G. as his rap godfathers, and who'll shamelessly admit he used to want to be Vanilla Ice, there's lots of music that figures heavily in his rebirth has nothing to do with rap.

D-Sisive credits discovering The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds with helping him out of his creative funk and refers to David Bowie as "My God." He says filmmaker P.T. Anderson taught him how to understand art, and has a Charles Bukowski obsession. That should be the laundry list of attributes for an Arcade Fire member, not the creative fuel for one of Canada's most enigmatic rappers. But it's all D-Sisive and it's why Let The Children Die is one of the most fascinating releases of this or any other year.