After signing with U.S. label Anti- and the re-release of his debut album Breaking Kayfabe, he spent eleven months in his hometown of Edmonton to work on new material for his next record.

[8] The album cover features Cadence sitting front and center on a stool while behind him are a group of people set up like a high school class photo.

[13] "Juliann Wilding" was based on a friend he met while working at See Magazine and called it his version of David Bowie's 1971 song "Queen Bitch".

[13] "The New Face of Fashion" is a "nasty electro banger with funk accents" and "old-school tinged refrains" that's described as "a screed against trendy couture" that ironically complements the "Misshapes/Nudie Jeans/Diesel-wearing crowd mercilessly.

Club called the album an improvement over Breaking Kayfabe, praising its storytelling and pop culture references saying, "Throughout, Pemberton comes off like a clever friend who just happens to be lyrically gifted: [He's] the perfect hip-hop hero for the Myspace age.

"[23] Jon Pareles of The New York Times gave the album a favourable review, admiring Cadence's lyrical mocking and use of sound saying, "He backs up his insolence with dense, tricky productions that pile samples and scratching atop techno and electro beats and go increasingly haywire as he gets more worked up.

"[29] Pitchfork writer Brian Howe commented about the overall growth in Cadence's musicianship throughout the record: "Aggressive mechanical drum patterns, gnarly electro synths, oddball samples, rubbery vocal cadences, pop-cultural punch lines, honor-roll puns: All of these comprise the broad strokes of Rollie Pemberton's musical identity, and now, on Afterparty Babies, they feel like the fixed elements of a mature style.

Dan Raper of PopMatters repeated what everyone said about the production and the lyrics throughout but felt that it limited Cadence's public appeal, concluding with, "You get the feeling he wouldn't want to be one of the "rappers on the radio" anyway.

"[11] Josh Modell of Spin also voiced concerns about the album, feeling that Cadence takes too much from indie hip-hop and that he should be more of an "equally passionate goofball" that might put him into the mainstream.

The website's writer Darcy MacDonald said that the record "made clear that Cadence Weapon's experimentations bringing electronic elements back to hip-hop hadn't been a lark", noting the production "leaned further into the dancefloor-ready influence of superstars like Daft Punk and underground darlings like Prefuse 73."

He concluded that: "As such, Cadence Weapon entered the conversation on rap blogs and indie rock sites alike, and he has remained as prolific, innovative and entertaining ever since.