Every so often a hip-hop artist turns out an album so in tune with itself and the world around it that anyone doubting the genre’s place in music has nothing to argue about. With Native Sun, Blitz the Ambassador’s fourth release, he has created a cohesive soundtrack to current affairs, history, and culture and has done so with a live backing band, and a select handful of guest performances.

On Native Sun, Blitz utilizes West African musical influences to diagram connections between its sound and that of modern hip/hop: Afrobeat and Parliment-esque funk meets turn tables and heavy bass. Each song has a different grouping of musicians, but the band is the same across the album, notably Jonathan Powell, Ron Prokopez, and Ezra Brown who make up the glorious horn section. Raja Kassis, on lead guitar, gives several tracks an old school Fela Kuti style.

Native Sun is an album experience. “En-Trance” begins with an airy trumpet, a poly-rhythmic beat that’s slow, with sax soloing low. Then there’s a flip and Blitz enters, singing in his native tongue, firing out flow effortlessly. “Akwaaba” has a similar feel, built on layers of percussion and more Ghanan lyricism; it’s off-the-cuff and totally second nature. Elsewhere, “Best I Can” offers a glistening synth and a mean hook by Corneille that J-Hova would have loved, while “Dear Africa” starts with a slinky beat and euphorically expands into Toubab Krewe-esque guitar strut with heavy horns as fast as Blitz’s raps “Signin’ off/ sincerely/it’s your native sun.”

On Chuck D’s appearance on “The Oracle”, the hip-hop legend says, “It’s not where you’re from; it’s where you’re at.” These words ring true with Blitz, taking his title as ambassador seriously, as Native Sun draw lines between modern hip-hop and African music influences throughout the past 50 years.