Dark Lo & Havoc – “Extreme Measures” (Album Review)

Dark Lo is a 39 year old MC from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who broke out in the winter of 2013 off his debut mixtape SK Tales. He’s gone on to release a handful of projects since, most notably the V Don-produced debut album Timeless back in 2018 & more recently his 3rd EP Borrowed Time over the spring produced entirely by Harry Fraud. But after dropping his 3rd album Charlie Pope back in July & being sentenced to 7½ years in prison a few weeks later due to witness tampering, he’s managing to drop his 4th full-length outing behind bars produced entirely by Havoc.

“Mob Tales” is a cinematic opener with the lit getting in that mafioso bag whereas “Lost Innocence” mournfully looks back on his past. I almost wanna say “Zombie Land” has a bit of a futuristic sound in the production with him & Hav talking about gunning cats down in broad daylight leading into Styles P tagging along for the combative yet alluring title track.

Meanwhile on “Greatest Ever”, we have Dark Lo proclaiming himself as such on top of an heinous instrumental just before the murderous “Reports” going into boom bap territory. “Make It Home” with Vado is easily the saddest cut on the entire album detailing their homies who got smoked, but then “Force of Life” brings in a hypnotic sample talking his shit.

The song “Dirty Work” has a cinematic organ loop taking shots at lukewarm MCs while the penultimate track “Captivating” brings in a cavernous beat to proclaim himself as such. “Strong Minded” ends the album by dramatically telling the story of Dark Lo’s homeboy getting murked when he was in the pen.

As much as I love Timeless & Borrowed Time, I think it’s safe to say that Extreme Measures is the best thing that this dude has done yet. He brings his A-game lyrically & Havoc’s production on here is just nasty from front to back. Whenever his next project drops, I’m definitely curious to see where he takes it.

Score: 8/10