Detroit-based producer Apollo Brown and West Coast spitter Planet Asia are teaming up again—this time for a full-length album called Anchovies that will delight fans of raw, underground hip-hop.
The duo last worked together on the 2014 EP Abrasions:Stitched Up, which consisted of Apollo's remixes of songs from the Gensu Dean-produced album Abrasions. But this time out, Apollo and Asia join forces for an entire 15-track project. They will be joined by TriState, Apollo's fellow Detroiter Guilty Simpson, and, on the album's first single "Dalai Lama Slang," Willie the Kid.
Anchovies will be out on Aug. 25 via Mello Music Group. It is Apollo's second collaborative project in the past year—last fall he released The Easy Truth with Skyzoo. For this album, the producer took a cinematic approach, composing beats and sequencing them as if he was directing a movie. Once it was finished, Planet Asia was the perfect choice.
"Anchovies are a dirty, nasty topping that are entirely distinct; and that matches the guttural production and rhymes which Apollo & Planet Asia provide," said Mello Music Group in a statement.
You can pre-order the album here, and get an advance taste by listening to "Dalai Lama Slang" below. On it, Apollo's sparse production is a perfect match for Asia's winding verse full of crazy alliteration ("Shadowbox Shower Posse/Sharpshooter in a shearling/Shalimer blasting out the Chevy"), creative boasts, and a shout-out to Noble Drew Ali.
