GQ & King Dylan

With a self-released solo album last year (All Eyes on D) and an album this year with his group the D.C. Show (Smacked By Popular Demand), rapper-producer King Dylan experiments now as part of a duo with label-mate GQ. Dylan starts by giving Afterlife a full sound with organic, feel-good production, opting for live instruments over samples. He usually keeps the tempo up and the production crisp and clean. The duo prefer singing to rapping on a hook, even going so far as to add a fair bit of rock-meets-soul vocals amongst the verses. Together, GQ and KD keep things mostly spiritual and positive, complimenting each other's singing and rapping. The result is an introspective and personal album that is unfortunately missing much of the humour from Dylan’s previous albums. Still, it’s also a more mature offering of hippy-hop, but that’s readily evident from the artwork alone. Maybe it’s time to let hip-hop give you a hug instead of a pound.