Planet Asia x DirtyDiggs — Arctic Plus Degrees (The Sun Don't Chill Allah) EP

First EP of the year for Fresno rapper Planet Asia, second for Los Angeles producer DirtyDiggs, on their third collaboration after releasing a couple of extended plays in 2015. The guests are Tristate, Sauce Heist, K. Burns, V-Knuckles, Flashius Clayton and Supreme Cerebral.

The first cut boasts a female skit in reverse, I guess, followed by a male skit from a movie, intro by Planet Asia and boom bap with dope strings; wonderful female soulful sample, celestial, tightly looped in the background, great rapping style by Planet Asia, smooth, crisp, controlled. Bridge on the chorus, with tighter rhythm and samples, close the skits that opened the song. "Twirl" boasts a cinematic production, boom bap jazzy dope, an excellent musical carpet for the agile flow of the Californian rapper and for the style of LA rapper Tristate, first guest of the edition. Sauce Heist is the guest on the third track, another good beat by DirtyDiggs with tight looped female soulful samples and Planet Asia raw flow. "Protocol" has a beat dope, boom bap jazzy sublime, good K Burns with a raw and smooth flow, Planet Asia maintains a confident and fluid style.

The fifth song is Planet Asia's last solo on a simple rhythm with heavy, shrill piano key and shrill violin in the background, followed by another simple beat, with strings and heavy male soulful samples. V-Knuckles spits out a few bars before the last track, which features Flashius Clayton and Supreme Cerebral as guests: lo-fi rhythm, squeaky violin looped tightly in the background along with a soulful female sample, crisp delivery by Planet Asia. After Clayton's contribution, the rhythm stops, and then starts again, Supreme Cerebral arrives to definitively rip the beat and close the whole project.

In the first half of the EP, DirtyDiggs doesn't miss any production, then he rests on his laurels and in the second half he's obviously a bit light-hearted and imperfect. In general, his contribution is solid. Planet Asia isn't telling me much here, and guest contributions add little or nothing: Supreme Cerebral delivers the best performance, among outsiders.

Rating: 6.7/10.