Six years in purgatory. A rapper who didn't rap. A performer who didn't perform. 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.

"It has nothing to do with children dying," says the man born Derek Christoff of the album's title track. "It's not an attractive sounding title. I choose not to tell people its definition. Why spoon feed? I'd rather ask, 'What do you think?' Interpret as you will, but Canadian hip-hop elite like Classified, Buck 65, Sweatshop Union, DJ Grouch, Moss, 9th Uno and Muneshine are on side. "They were never calculated," says D- Sisive of his collaborations. "It was always about 'You know who would sound great on this?'" And then D would go get them. Classified joined D on the wicked club banger "Riot I Caused." Buck 65 appears on "The Superbowl Is Over." The song, based on Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note, holds special significance for D-Sisive. D-Sisive's first ever live show was opening for Buck's old band Sebutones back in 1995. He considers the album-closer as the completing of circle. "I barely know Buck, but it meant a lot that the person who was connected to the start of my hip-hop career had a hand in finishing off my first official album almost 15 years later," says D. "That's probably my favorite song on the album."

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. "I just wanted to keep the same cast that helped me create The Book. I just thought they were so amazing I didn't want to change the formula."

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. "The Introduction," the first song on Let The Children Die, is a surprisingly faithful cover of "Death Take Your Fiddle," a song by U.K. shoegaze rock legends Spiritualized. It adds to a growing back catalogue of non-hiphop re-imaginings that also includes Tom Waits, Iggy Pop and Daniel Johnston.

The first proper single, "Wonderful World," was an oddity for D-Sisive when he created it almost 10 years ago. Its sung hook and bleak worldview were at odds with his other less-serious work at the time. "My beautiful, angelic voice is all over the chorus," he says with a giggle. "I call it my Terence Trent D'Arby song. I had no idea eight years ago this was the type of music I'd be making now." The song "Switzerland" is also brave, new territory for hip-hop. "I've always been obsessed with Switzerland because I'm a huge Charlie Chaplin fan," says D- Sisive. "I know he spent his last years in Switzerland. I remember watching a documentary about Switzerland and when I was 12, 13, I remember telling my parents, 'I'm going to live in Switzerland some day.' And then my parents would be, 'Why?' And I'd be, 'Because Charlie Chaplin lived in Switzerland.' I've always had this strange Chaplin-Switzerland obsession. How Hip-Hop is that?"

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, has a Charles Bukowski obsession and a history of harassing Ron Sexsmith. 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. And he's not done. "I want to create music that means something," says D- Sisive defiantly. "I'm sure that's what everyone thinks their approach is, but I know I'm at least trying. I want to create art. Fuck music. I want to take the seatbelt off! "Otherwise, what's the point?"