The term “stalwart” was made for rappers like Planet Asia. Listen to any of the Fresno, California native’s music and you’ll see patterns of slick-tongued braggadocio blended with Five Percenter teachings, a delicate balance of the spiritual and the profane as inspired by string theory as it is by Wu-Tang Clan and Too $hort. Unlike fellow West Coast spitter Ras Kass, who raps like a rhyming world history textbook, Asia mostly uses the metaphysical as wallpaper for the lifestyle raps, drug dealing, and hood reporting he’s made his name on since 1997. In that time, he’s racked up a short-lived deal with Interscope, founded his own label Gold Chain Music, and released enough independent mixtapes, collaborations, and one-offs to make Curren$y blush. In a modern rap underground defined by warping the old-school boom-bap ethos, Planet Asia fits like a jewel into a pendant.
As a luminary of traditionalist hip-hop with two and a half decades worth of experience, Planet Asia is anything but humble. “I refuse to be over 40 and bitter,” he says plainly on “Everyday Victory,” a song near the end of his latest project Medallions Monarchy. Over blaring horns and organ stabs supplied by New Jersey producer Brainorchestra, he stakes a claim to his legacy by continuing to do what he does best: rolling out boasts, anecdotes, and smack talk like he’s working over a speed bag.
Asia prides himself on providing the same kind of life advice you’d expect to hear from a fly uncle draped in gold, techwear, and incense. It doesn’t matter if he’s recalling dirty macking stories of “I’m a Drug” and “Soundbwoy Homicide” or times when bullets tore through his car seat during a drug deal on “Marvelous Merchant”—he sells it all with a smooth growl. His cadence and syllable placements on “Marvelous Merchant” catch the ear almost as much as the image of a city where Asia walks around with “hyenas on a chain without the muzzle.” He’s grateful to still be breathing after seeing drugs moved and bodies go cold and, as he says near the end of “Clap Ya Hands,” he still gets a kick out of translating self-knowledge into rhyme: “Trials attributed to my upbringing/I was born understanding like the sun beaming.”
His lyrical style may not have changed much, but Asia’s been keeping his ear to the street when it comes to beats. Medallions boasts a solid range of fuzzy loops and drum breaks that spans generations. Veteran producers Eto and Chong Wizard offer ominous lilting marches on “F.Y.P.M.” and closing track “The Scenery,” respectively. But the album’s best beats come from its two youngest producers—Brainorchestra and Griselda affiliate Camouflage Monk, with two apiece. The wonky drum patterning on “Marvelous Merchant” and the stately shuffle of “Floating to the Max” challenge Asia’s agility, forcing him to find unique pockets.
That isn’t to say Planet Asia is showing his age on the mic. On the contrary—he’s been preparing his group Gold Chain Military’s debut album and has dropped no less than six projects in the past 18 months, hard work that’s aligned his ethos and release strategy with prolific modern outfits like Griselda and the members of Mutant Academy. Medallions Monarchy may not be a revelation like 2006’s The Medicine or 2017’s Apollo Brown team-up Anchovies, but it’s breezy and hard-hitting, another link in Asia’s ever-extending chain.
Correction: As of October 18, this review has been updated to restore the final paragraph, which was inadvertently omitted on original publication.
