Seventy Nine [Explicit]

Let me start out by saying, for those who gave this album low star's are disrespecting one of the West Coast most slept on rap artist of all time! PA has enough skills to match with the East Coast legend's, when NY ruled the industry, in the 80's & the 90's! PA has never had a garbage album & that is something that most artist cannot achieve! Now grant it...it's not his best work to date, but I'll still give this album 4 star's! Food for thought!

Planet Asia is one of the most slept on emcees period. Seventy Nine is amazing!!!

Creative and somewhat interesting.

What can be said about Fresno, California emcee Planet Asia that hasn’t already been said? The Cali Agent is an advanced lyricist with a long discography of mostly collaborations going back to the late ‘90s, and he’s got the respect of fans and the rap game in his pocket. For his latest project, he’s linked up with Long Island, New York producer DJ Concept for tastes and flavors from their respective coasts, though favoring Eastside creations most significantly. Seventy Nine (March 25, Coalmine Records) is their gold-themed retro-rap album of traditional hip-hop and glorious guests.

The subject matter here hardly varies. PA proceeds with his usual king-talk while his guests follow suit (when in Rome…), but when you’re presented with well crafted poetical rhymes, you have to give due respect. The best and only detours would have to be Planet Asia discussing his meager beginnings in a life of forced, nonstop grinding and hustling that continues today (“International”) and the sound bite of a police officer brutally detaining a subject in “The Festival.” Fortunately, those two songs along with “Gold Vases” were the album’s three singles.

DJ Concept has done some very good crate-digging and beat-crafting work so no complaints there. Guests Marvelous Mag, Sean Price, Blu, Agallah, John Robinson and SmooVth, as well as the DJ features, Revolution, Pain 1 and Devastate, can be exonerated of anything right off the bat because again, no complaints. They've done their jobs well. Planet Asia on the other hand is arguably a different story.

His lyrical work is good, consistent and complex, but at this point, he might want to take off his backpack for a sec and really think about what he’s been keeping in there over the years if you know what I mean. Though nobody does it like him, there has to be more to rap about than his impressive rhyme gymnastics describing how great a big kahuna he is. Planet Asia knows this, but its execution sometimes gets postponed by mad seas of rhymes for him. “How” seems to be a bigger part of his game than “what,” and if it doesn’t change, Planet Asia might soon find himself in another solar system before long. Seventy Nine is definitely a good album though not a classic one.