Approaching 20 years since the release of his debut self-titled EP, Planet Asia has unveiled the first visuals from his forthcoming (January 19) album, The Golden Buddha. The LP’s introductory single, appropriately titled “Fireworks,” is a thunderous and radiant commencement of the Cali Agents MC’s soon-to-be gainful 2018.

With a brawny hand in over 50 projects since his 1998 entrance into the hip-hop sphere, The Fresno, California native rapper has had an undeniably profound impact on the Northern California Hip-Hop movement over that span of time. Once a half of Bay Area-duo Cali Agents, P.A. has been a master of collaboration over his career, working on full albums with the likes of Madlib, DJ Muggs, Cappadonna, Canibus, and most recently with Apollo Brown on the well-received 2017 LP, Anchovies.

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While Planet Asia enlists AZ, The Architect, and some other choice features on The Golden Buddha, he will handle the bulk of wordplay throughout the album, which is entirely produced by izznice (Superstar Quamallah). The video for “Fireworks” shows a poised P.A. perusing through Chinatown, confidently lacing two verses over a Run-D.M.C.-sampled (“Hit It Run”) guitar-heavy, sonic infrastructure. Using the “I’m A King” lyrical sample as a thematic foundation, Planet Asia references his self-proclaimed Hip-Hop royalty throughout, but most notably on the chorus, “To go to war with the God you gotta fire first / My crown tilted, pyramids, my squad built it / Roses at the feet of the king, the God killed it.”

On the track’s concluding verse, Planet Asia announces, “For those that might’ve slept, I’m sittin’ on some heaters,” and if “Fireworks” is any indication, The Golden Buddha will be  grand in the form of verbal pyrotechnics.