Calvin Valentine is an emcee and producer originally from Eugene but now residing in Los Angeles. He has been especially prolific in recent years, with Valentine releasing four projects in two years on Mello Music Group, the last of which being Napkins, which came out in June of last year. Now he comes back with another project that was created right after that album came out, Save the Planet.

Save the Planet is an interesting project in a couple of ways. One is that while the title of the EP is Save the Planet, this isn’t an explicitly political release full of environmental messages. In fact, most of the EP is dealing with sex and weed (disclaimer – if you don’t like rhymes about sex and weed, this isn’t for you). However, Valentine is working in interstitial clips of George Carlin’s standup about saving the planet, and how humans have to do a better job of saving each other and themselves before they can think about saving the planet. This is also complicated by how Valentine manages to sneak in all of these little smart observations about things like the criminal justice system and capitalism, albeit buried beneath a surface where weed and sex are the main focus. Musically, this might be Valentine’s most “L.A.” project yet, with him really embracing an ‘80 synthed-out R&B influenced style of hip hop, which ends up sounding very proto G-Funk. It’s smooth and laid back, like a warm summer night, and Valentine definitely matches that with his flow on the mic. It’s definitely a release that in other circumstances I would recommend driving around in the summer with your windows down and the music turned up.

Save the Planet seems like one thing, and while it’s definitely a party EP, it’s a party EP that still wants you to be cool and smart while you’re getting loose and enjoying yourself. Have a good time, but still take care of the planet.