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We are given the definition of Afterparty Babies by Cadence Weapon a few minutes into Do I Miss My Friends?, the opening track of his brilliant sophomore effort. Weapon, it turns out, is an afterparty baby, the end product of a conception occasioned by a drug and/or alcohol -fueled encounter following a night out. As Weapon says at the close of Do I Miss My Friends?, “keep making mistakes,” even as Afterparty Babies has none. It is a flawless, intense effort that, however improbably, breaks new ground in a genre where such seemed impossible.

Pundits have been writing off rap and hip-hop practically since the genre began, and the cycle of doom and gloom is in full bore even as I write this. Weapon, a 22 year-old rapper from Edmonton, Alberta, burst onto the scene like a supernova with his first official release, BREAKING KAYFABE. Afterparty Babies takes him further out, incorporating elements of funk, rock, and electronica to create a 360 degree aural circus.

Do I Miss My Friends? lulls the unwary listener with a somewhat slow beginning that gives a nod to urban music’s doo-wop origins, though as the track proceeds one gets a glimmer of where things are going. Afterparty Babies is one large slab of party, that moves through the dance and hip-hop genres and all of their sub-parts. The industrial soundtrack of The New Face of Fashion, the electronica of Limited Edition O.J. Slammer, the drum and bass informed Getting Dumb, the house-infused House Music (funny how that works out, isn’t it?) and the rock backbeat of Getting Dumb get this thing moving from (almost) start to finish, with no confusion or where any track begins or ends. More importantly, there is none of what I call “white-zone areas,” where you suddenly realize that for the last ‘x’ number of minutes you have no idea what you have been listening to.

This guy is for real, just now coming into his own. He has the potential to do for urban music what Prince was able to do thirty years ago. Hit Afterparty Babies early, often, and loud.