DMV area hip-duo artist and production duo Kev Brown & J Scienide recently released their sophomore effort together Stray From the Pack — and the album is an organic effort that celebrates — and harkens back to — many of hip-hop’s classic collaborative albums, while boldly pushing the genre’s sound and approach forward. “Stray From The Pack, to me, is the perfect title. Like a pack of wolves running together in stride. Sometimes you have to be those lone wolves and go in your own direction,” J. Scienide says of the album’s title.

Sonically, the album finds the duo’s production deftly coloring outside the lines of boom-bap as they pair off-kilter syncopated beats and left-field samples with clever wordplay and straight-talk about their place in hip-hop. The album’s latest single “Out the Safari” is centered around a lush, forward-thinking production featuring neck snapping, hard-hitting beats, and a twinkling McCoy Tyner-like piano sample. The duo spit some dexterous bars full of bravado, braggadocio and mischievous wit.

The duo linked up last fall to shoot the remarkably stylish visual for “Out the Safari” — and visually, it seems to nod at film noir while following the duo walking around a suburban town while spitting rhymes.