DJ Cosm — best known as one half of immensely talented Calgary hip hop duo Dragonfli Empire — is evolving. Space and Time, a diverse brew that’s been sitting on the backburner for two years, is Cosm’s time to shine, and here, he makes few mistakes: Assembling a continent-spanning guest list, including veritable legends in Organized Confusion’s Prince Po and Craig G of the Juice Crew, Space and Time isn’t content to establish Cosm’s sonic universe. It expands it.

Still, Cosm’s imprint is evident — here, he says he hand-picked guests that fit in with his musical (and political) philosophy. As with Dragon Fli, jazzy touches abound — he inherited crates of records from Edmonton trumpet mainstay Neil Corlett, which still colours his music — see “Day That’s New,” “Fli Interlude” and the superb, positively charged “Connected.” Elsewhere, his music branches into different directions. “Cosm Mega,” which was his first “royalty-free” composition, has a hyper-charged Kozmega frothing over a minimal beat and molasses-thick MPC bass, while aggression binds the robotic, Cam the Juice-backed “Back 2 Rap” and “Beyond the Horizon” — both departures from Dragonfli’s typical smoothness. Listen up.

MARK TEO

You’ve mentioned that this record allowed you to work with artists with whom you share a message. What are those messages?

Regional pride — there’s a few songs that talk about where we’re from. We don’t make it a secret: I picked artists from Alberta that I respect, like Kazega, Touch and Cam the Wizzard. Individuality, equality, acceptance — basically, positive, leftist messages, things I shared with a lot of like-minded cats.

As a solo venture, how does this differ from your Dragonfli work?

Production-wise, certainly a lot of tracks would work well on a Dragonfli record But it gave me a chance to branch away from that — some of the darker tracks are soundscapes that wouldn’t have worked so well. Lyrically, it’s the same positive uplifting message as Dragonfli, but it gave me a chance to work with people with blunter, more dark, different ways of saying things.

You managed to cull a diverse group of guests, from Halifax’s Ghettosocks to Craig G. How did you recruit them?

It’s really been a mixed bag. First and foremost, I reached out to my inner circle — guys like Cam, Rayul Syed and Teekay. As far as some of the Canadian guests, we’ve been fortunate enough to do quite a bit of touring. We’ve opened for Moka Only, Grand Analog, Ghetto Socks, et cetera.

Craig G and Prince Po — those are the legends, I basically cold-called. They were two of my favourite MCs growing up. That was the icing on the cake.

How’d you feel when Prince Po agreed to be on the track?

It was awesome. It was really reassuring. He actually made the comment to me, “I gotta come tight, because your shit might sell better than mine!” I told him I thought he was a legend of the genre, and he was really taken aback and humbled by that. It showed that these are just people, like you and me. It’s funny, cause Craig G’s bugging us now to bring him up for a tour — we’re looking to maybe get him up for a couple shows in the fall.

DJ Cosm releases Space and Time at the Marquee Room on Saturday, April 2.